The Custer Beacon and Deep Creek Art Gallery have partnered to bring a special presentation of a treasured unique performer: Tony Deblois!

This show is free and open to the public

“What the character of Rain Man can do with math, I can do with music” - Tony DeBlois

About Tony Deblois - from: The State Journal-Register

DeBlois was blind at birth, weighing less than 2 pounds. He was diagnosed with autism when he was 5.

But his mother, Janice DeBlois, witnessed a miracle when she bought an organ at a yard sale and her son played “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” at the age of 2.

Today, DeBlois, 36, plays 22 instruments, and has been performing professionally since he was 9. He leads an improvisational jazz ensemble, and he has made six albums.

He is the subject of a CBS movie of the week, “Journey to the Heart.” He performs nationally and internationally, and has entertained at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Stories about him have been broadcast on National Public Radio, Voice of America radio and Talk America, and he has been on “Today” and “Entertainment Tonight.”

While attending the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., he took violin lessons and learned the trumpet. Other instruments he plays include harmonica, guitar, chord organ, Indian flute, pan flute, banjo, saxophone and clarinet.

He won a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1996. He has received a Certificate of Achievement for his work from the school.