MANCHESTER, NH – There isn’t much that surprises Mark Schoenfeld when it comes to show biz. He’s been around the entertainment block so many times – from Broadway to Hollywood to Nashville and back – that his reputation as the consummate “pitch man” precedes him just about everywhere he goes.
That’s why his unexpected encounter with a real-life “Music Boy” at Tampa International Airport earlier this week gave him the kind of chills that come with the realization that you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.
Right place, right time, right karma.
“I was going to St. Pete to meet up with my former assistant, Timothy Boynton. I worked with him 20 years ago on “Brooklyn,” and he’s the new creative producer for “Music Boy,” my latest project,” Schoenfeld explains.
The person who picked him up in Tampa, Duncan Alexander, is also an old friend.
“I’d describe Duncan as ‘humanitarian’ by nature. So he’s there to get me and when he comes up to me he says, ‘I have to introduce you to this boy who plays piano and is autistic. I told his mother about you. Do you want to meet him or just get going?'”
Anyone who knows Schoenfeld already knows the answer. He’s always game.
As the two men made their way through the bustling terminal near a giant pink flamingo Schoenfeld was drawn closer to the source of the holiday music echoing around the crush of travelers. At the center of it all was Milosz Gasior, 19, serene, focused. He was seated at a small keyboard in a black tuxedo with a red bow tie. His playing was effortless; his expression, oblivious to the hustle and bustle behind him – including the presence of a Broadway producer.
“His mother came over and told me his whole story,” says Schoenfeld.
Diagnosed with moderate to severe autism in his second year of life, Milosz has struggled since with verbal communication and simple tasks. Although his reading comprehension is that of a fourth-grader, his ability to read and memorize sheets of music at a time and then translate the notes from his head to his heart to his hands is like a miracle.
It was not lost on Schoenfeld that Milosz is the embodiment of “Music Boy,” a fantastical fictional storyline that has lived inside Schoenfeld’s head for decades, and which is finally approaching production.
“Music Boy is all about the healing power of music, and that when you have music in you it is a gift. When you have that gift and you share it, music changes people’s lives – it changes their moods, it revives memories, it allows us to feel emotion and understand what others are feeling,” Schoenfeld said. “Here’s this boy, Milosz, locked up in a world we don’t fully understand and I’m not so sure doctors and scientists understand it so well yet, either. But here he is, barely able to speak a word, and yet he plays song after song right from his heart. How does that happen?”
In Schoenfeld’s libretto, it happens through the magic of a mother’s love. After spending some time at the airport with Milosz and his mother, Bozena Gasior, it turns out that somehow their true-life story imitates Schoenfeld’s art.
“The way I looked at her, she’s a soldier mom. She’s on a mission to make sure her son, who is severely autistic, has the best life he could possibly have and she is not nervous or scared to ask for help,” Schoenfeld says.
It’s a quality he admires, but also relates to. At one point in his life, before he scored a hit with his Broadway musical “Brooklyn,” Schoenfeld was a single dad.
“I was raising two kids on my own. I know what it’s like, how difficult life can be when you have problems,” he said.
After listening to Milosz play holiday song after holiday song to the delight of onlookers of all ages, Schoenfeld was moved to see what more he could do.
“I hugged him and whispered to his mother that I would help her in any way I can,” Schoenfeld said.
He plans to connect her with another dear friend of his, author and motivational speaker Paul Boynton, who recently retired from his longtime post as CEO of Moore Center Services here in Manchester – and is proud father to Schoenfeld’s current creative producer for the “Music Boy” project. If that doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what does, Schoenfeld says.
“I can see his mother doing a TED Talk about their journey, about what it’s like to have a child like this, truly gifted but also with neurological problems. There are so many others out there who can relate to her as a ‘soldier mom,’ doing whatever she has to just to make sure he lives the best life he can,” Schoenfeld says. “And I think she should write a book about it. Paul would be the perfect mentor for her.”
After decades in the business, Schoenfeld now finds himself inexplicably pulled into the spheres of those who need some guidance on their own journeys, like being caught in a musical magnetic field.
Schoenfeld’s sudden magnetism makes perfect sense to another long-time associate of his, Bob Leone, former director of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, with whom Schoenfeld shared his airport encounter experience. Leone wrote the following back to Schoenfeld:
“During our conversation tonight it occurred to me that the people who have just recently come into your life, and the people you’ve known for as long as 30 years who are coming back into your life, have something in common. They are all connected in some way or another to the creation of ‘Music Boy.’ I don’t believe this is coincidence. I believe that the universe supports this wonderful project of yours, that it wants it to achieve fruition. The Universe is ‘the wind beneath your wings,’ and has given ‘Music Boy’ its blessing. As you know, I’ve believed for many years that Music Boy will impact the lives of all that see it, particularly children, in the most positive ways. I’m honored to be on this journey with you.”
As Leone noted, Milosz and many of those who have found Schoenfeld of late have done so through serendipity.
Call it a talent triangle, or circle of fate, says Schoenfeld. Call it destiny if you want. All he knows is meeting Milosz was kismet.
“There’s a song in ‘Music Boy’ called ‘Give a Gift to Yourself and Do Something Wonderful for Somebody Else.’ It’s a song Music Boy’s mother sings to him. I want to follow my own lyric. Why do I want to help strangers I meet in airports? I don’t know. I guess I want to give them wings and help them fly,” he says, as the whole airport-flying metaphor sinks in.
Schoenfeld knows a good hook when he hears it, and also smiles at the suggestion he’s become a Magnet Man.
“I like that – people finding me and I can’t control it,” he says. “Yeah, Magnet Man – you can put that in your story.”
If you happen to be traveling for Christmas Eve, Milosz will be concluding his holiday airport gig on Dec. 24.
