Suddenly, on March 25, 2024, the horizon opened before Markus Pint. At 28, the young man joined Percujam, an extraordinary music group, made up of eight autistic adults and their educators, in Antony (Hauts-de-Seine). Percussionist and drummer within the group, he now performs rehearsals and concerts throughout France. “He’s having a blast and
we, parents, no longer have to worry about his future,”
breathes Thierry, his father.
“I love the sound of bells”
Markus is autistic and has Williams-Beuren syndrome. (1). “Sometimes I’m grumpy when I’m tired,
he describes. And the high frequencies in music exhaust me.”
He also has his “oddities”
as his father tenderly calls them: “I love the sound of the bells. »
Every evening, when he stays at the family home in Saint-Quay-Portrieux (Côtes-d’Armor), he goes upstairs, opens the windows and listens to the Angelus ringing. “The great bell of Notre-Dame de Paris makes him cry with emotion”,
adds Thierry. His hypersensitivity and great fatigability are combined with a slight mental deficiency, difficulties with fine psychomotor skills and attention.
What drives Markus is music
But the young man has a gift, that of rhythm. He was introduced to the snare drum and other percussion instruments in bagadoubli and samba groups in the Paris region, where he grew up. He has also played, since 2021, in the bagad of Pommerit-le-Vicomte (Côtes-d’Armor), which evolves among the elite of Breton music groups. “He has a pretty crazy ability to adapt,
notes Alexis Aroaro, vice-president and musician of the Pañvrid bagad. He has to know everyone in the group, otherwise it will bother him. Musically, it’s square, and it’s at ease everywhere, in traditional music as well as in rock or batucada. »
