WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (PIX11) — Think performers in stadiums or arenas, and Beyoncé or Bruce Springsteen understandably come to mind. But one of the country’s most widely heard stadium and arena performers is actually an autistic person from the Tri-state region.
Ethan Donn has now played The National Anthem at dozens of packed stadiums, having overcome some significant challenges in his life.
“What he doesn’t have verbally, he has musically,” said Ethan’s father, Jeff Donn, about their work together that has resulted in his son becoming a prolific public performer.
“It’s been an amazing journey,” the father said.
Ten years ago, he asked Mercy University, where Ethan, 24, was doing speech therapy, if Ethan could play the national anthem at a basketball game there.
“They were the first team to say yes,” Donn said, and from there, his son’s bookings grew in number and frequency in a big way.
Now, Ethan has become one of the most widely heard stadium and arena performers in the country. The New York Mets were the first major team to have him play The National Anthem, and once that happened, the Yankees responded in kind. At this point, Ethan Donn has played at Yankee Stadium four times.
He’s also played at at least nine major league baseball or NFL stadiums, and at at least two professional sports franchise arenas, as well as at dozens of college sports events.
The list of all of his appearances keeps growing, and it’s a point of pride for Ethan.
He describes his experiences in terms as big as the venues themselves. “Huge! So amazing,” Ethan said in an interview.
“It was wonderful,” he said about his performances in front of tens of thousands of people. “What I feel,” he continued, “is relaxing.”
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While most of his large venue performances are on the violin, Ethan Donn is by no means limited to that instrument solely.
In an interview at his home, he sat down at his family’s baby grand piano and played a poignant ballad. It was a song he’d composed in 2018 that’s gotten recognition in the film industry, as his father explained.
“He wrote an original song for the movie ‘Victims,’ streaming on Amazon Prime,” Jeff Donn said. “He’s got the credit on IMDB.”
Sure enough, in the credits for the movie, on the world’s best-known source of information about film and television, there’s Ethan Donn’s name, listed as providing “additional music.”
Ethan’s mother calls this natural talent a miracle.
“I don’t have any music background whatsoever,” she said. In contrast, she added, “He can play anything.”
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Still, Ethan’s performance and composition, as successful as they’ve been, are only just the beginning, according to his family.
“My whole purpose of doing everything was just to get his name out there,” Ethan’s father said, “and hope that somebody will see him and say, ‘Hey, that boy’s got talent. I’d like to work with him.’”
Jeff Donn summed up his son’s success simply.
“I like to say,” he explained, “Ethan has autism, but autism doesn’t have Ethan.”
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