This past season marked the third
year of Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program at Sing Sing
Correctional Facility. Throughout the season, participants met with
professional musicians in weekly workshops that led to concerts
featuring new works by participants performed for the facility. One
of our roster artists, Lee Ann Westover of The Lascivious Biddies,
shares the story behind a CBS web extra of her
performance of an original song written by a
participant.
By Lee Ann Westover
I had worked in other prisons before
heading up to Ossining, so this wasn't my first time working with
people who are incarcerated. Still, I was a little afraid of what I
might find up at Sing Sing. The maximum security prison is the
stuff of legend. My fears began to dissipate, though, as soon as I
started shaking hands with the guys. It was clear that these 16 men
were intensely dedicated to their own rehabilitation. I found each
one of them to be polite, respectful, and unbelievably excited to
have the opportunity to hear their music performed with a group of
professionals.
When I went to sit with Dennis to
work out his song, his humble demeanor immediately put me at ease.
It didn't take long for us to start up with friendly banter. One on
one, we were two musicians, trying to bring a song into the world.
During the first run-throughs, I was impressed by his clarity of
vision. Some of my vocal improvisations were okayed, but he had the
confidence to let me know that others strayed from what he wanted
to hear. As a fellow composer I had to respect that. At the time I
had no idea what he had done to land him up the river (this is
where the euphemism originated), but the man I got to know is
talented, smart, kind, creative, and funny.
From the outside, it can be very
easy to write off every incarcerated person as a burden of society
who does not deserve the time and attention we have to give.
Throughout the process I had a very difficult time reconciling all
those warm friendly smiles with the seriousness of the crimes that
these men had committed. However, as the workshop's facilitator
Daniel Levy put so succinctly in his interview with CBS, each of
them is going to be free one day. Would you rather have a neighbor
who was given an opportunity to better himself or someone who was
left to rot for 35 years? They have committed criminal acts, but I
really believe that we human beings owe it to each other to try and
help someone who is asking for the chance to make his life into
something to be proud of—even if much of it will be spent behind
bars.
Musical Connections is a
program of Carnegie Hall that offers diverse live music experiences
for people in healthcare settings, correctional facilities,
senior-service organizations, and homeless shelters across New York
City. Visit
carnegiehall.org/MusicalConnections for more
information.
Photo by Mary K. Elkins.