Music director New York Philharmonic Jaap van Zweden and his wife Aaltje van Zweden - van Buuren
When Jaap and Aaltje van Zweden's child was born with autism, the impact on the family was and continues to be huge. In 1997, the couple established the Papageno Foundation, to help children and young people with autism. Now, more then 25 years later, Papageno has made a name for itself in the Netherlands. The Foundation has developed into a multi-faceted organization, which, through all sorts of initiatives and activities, focuses on the development of children and young people with autism:
Music therapy: we have a national network of 20 qualified music therapists, who provide therapy to children in their homes or schools and in the Papageno House.
Papageno House Laren and Papageno House Fryslân: in this house we provide the youngsters with a place to work, to participate in activities, to live, to grow and to participate in the community.
We also support and conduct research into the effects of music therapy on autism and into the possibilities of early diagnosis.
Also in New York there is al lot of interest in the work of the Papageno Foundation and therefore Aaltje van Zweden recently gave a lecture at Yale University.