Music Behind Bars: Transforming lives through music

Associated Musicians of Greater New York
by Claire Bryant
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At our most recent concert at Sing Sing, we joined with jazz vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles and opera superstar Joyce DiDonato. Joyce gave a spine-tingling rendition of a Rossini double-aria to enthusiastic cheers, including a member of the crowd screaming, “You go, girl!” mid-melisma, followed by a baseball chant from the crowd, “Di-Do-Nato-Di-Do-Nato.” We were all privy to an incredible performance that just happened to be in prison!

. . . In closing, I will share a favorite quote from Jimbo, an inmate at Lee Correctional Institution: “Sound is one of the strongest energies that I know of. It can penetrate wood, stone and even steel. Music has a way of touching our minds, our hearts, even our very souls. It can cause a vortex of emotions to swell inside of us. So, through music, even a prison’s climate can be changed.”

Read the entire feature here.