Autistic Adult Choir

 

In August 2014, Mr Tillman Co-Founded The Autistic Adult Choir (TAAC) with Professor Pamela Heaton from Goldsmiths at the Arts Club in London. From the outset (we believe this is still the case) TAAC was the 1st and only performing autistic adult choir. Initially there were only 5 joiners,  but this number grew over the years to nearly 50 by 2022. This growth was led by the efforts of the Choirmaster, Jill Bradford, who built strong personal relationships acrossthe choir, leading them to perform in front of 13,000 at a QPR FC match and before the BBC.  Mr Tillman served as Chairman, responsible for locating and funding rehearsal locations (St Martins in the Field followed by St Botolph’s without Aldgate), and external performances, for a period of 8 years. Also during this time period Mr Tillman linked linking TAAC with NYU, funded the launch of a business named of Autistic Employment (2018-Asian advisory) and personally launched the website autistic performance.com which tracked performances by autistic persons across the arts and the globe. Mr Tillman resigned from all of these businesses in August 2022 with Ms Bradford to lead them and be responsible for funding them in the future.

 

While there were so many highlights, one stood out for me to always remember. For one night in October 2020, Black History month, a small number of TAAC performed in front of a small group at the Arts Club, during which TACC’s soprano sang My Precious Lord to Emile Sande, like Mahalia Jackson used to sing to MLK before he led his marches. One month  later, the soprano’s mother died of COVID – but for one night TAAC replicated Mahalia Jackson –in a London venue- and reminded me of my childhood and my mother.

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