RockAbility West Performance at Chagrin Falls Documentary Film Festival

RockAbility West, the newest inclusive rock band created by NPower Services, will make its public debut on Sunday, October 11, at approximately 6 p.m. at Chagrin Falls Intermediate School, closing out the Chagrin Falls Documentary Film Festival with a live performance celebrating music, community and inclusion.

The performance will immediately follow the festival’s 5 p.m. screening of Sing the World Better, a 44-minute documentary about Lauda, a trailblazing Canadian choral ensemble that welcomes singers of every neurotype.

The film follows talented young people who have struggled to find their place within the traditional, highly structured choral world and instead discover a musical home built around community, friendship, acceptance, safety and freedom. Lauda grew from its conductor’s experience leading the internationally renowned Shallaway Youth Choir and operates with one refreshingly simple rule: “Don’t be mean.”
Following a film about what can happen when musicians are given the freedom and support to belong, the audience will see that same philosophy come to life on stage with RockAbility West.

RockAbility is an inclusive music program created by NPower Services, a Northeast Ohio organization that helps adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities build meaningful lives. The program
brings adults with disabilities together with experienced area musicians who perform and record throughout Northeast Ohio.

The original RockAbility began in 2020 with a simple idea: give talented adult musicians with disabilities the opportunity to make music alongside experienced musicians—and create a band where everyone is valued for what they bring to the stage.
“RockAbility got its start in 2020, when we had the idea to give adult musicians on the spectrum an opportunity to make music alongside neurotypical musicians who gig and record all over Northeast Ohio,” said Lori Weber, founder of NPower Services. “We’ve had as many as 22 musicians rehearsing and performing at one time. Eventually, we had a wonderful problem: more people wanted to participate than we could accommodate.”

The original group literally began running out of room—and soundboard channels.