Voices from the Flats – Notes from Prison and the Redemptive Power of Music
3 11 2009
By Pati Crofut
There’s not much point in getting someone started on the violin if they will be released within six months, so our orchestra musicians are the ones with the long sentences, for crimes like murder or embezzling. I know that sounds odd, but as it turns out this is exactly who you want in a prison orchestra, in this case the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center Women’s String Orchestra.
I started this orchestra in 2003 because I was learning the cello and needed a beginning orchestra to play with, and my friend Janice Weiss (Education Director at Hiland at that time) wanted a music program for the women inmates. The criterion for joining the orchestra is threefold: Each aspiring musician must write an essay stating why they want to join, be involved in programs working towards their rehabilitation, and have a long sentence.
Our conductor is Gabrielle Willis. Gabi is an Anchorage legend. She has made it cool to participate in high school orchestras. Local orchestras under her guidance have swelled from six to sixty members. She brings that same professionalism and talent to Hiland. She accepts nothing but our best. From the moment that she walks in and gives us an “A” for tuning, we are focused. Gabi has taken us through sixth grade musical literature into the pieces her high school students are playing.
And there is Dean Marshall, the Superintendent of Hiland. Only a forward thinking, innovative leader would be supportive of a musical program with a public concert inside the prison. Many would be daunted by the logistics of providing security clearance and ushering 300 people in and out of a prison for the performance.
I have passed the last six years of my life playing music with the women at Hiland and it is humbling to find out how like me they are. I have kids. So do Pam, Angela and Lisa. I’m a liberal. So is Dana. We all love Sandra Bullock movies and Yo Yo Ma. We mourn the passing of summer and dread the approach of winter. We try hard with our jobs. We get nervous performing in public and we obsess about our weight.
And they are not like me. The older orchestra inmates worry about getting jobs to support themselves upon their release. The younger ones worry that they will be too old to bear children. I go in and out of Hiland Correctional Center. They remain. And some of them wonder how they will find an orchestra outside the prison when they get out. Casey is planning on auditioning for the civic orchestra in California upon her release.
We don’t talk about our problems during orchestra, and because of this I think our playing has an earnestness and purpose lacking in other orchestras. I have seen tears trickle down the faces of women during rehearsal. It’s part of our orchestra culture to just keep on playing no matter what happens. Cassandra was upset last week because she received a visitor during orchestra. “Why don’t they listen to me,” she said, “I told them no visitors during orchestra rehearsal. I can’t afford to miss the class.” We kept playing.
Sara has passed her twenties inside Hiland. She rushed in one day, looked at all of us in horror, and announced that she might never get the chance to be a mom. She had just seen an infant in the visiting room. Once again we picked up our instruments. Someone got denied parole. Let’s practice those eighth notes again.
There is a lot of black humor in our group. We get excited when women are incarcerated with long sentences. We immediately want to know if they have a musical background.
We joke that Lisa, our bass player, can never be paroled—she’s a great bassist. We say that we are learning to play well with others. We are facing the music, scaling the bars. It’s music in the big house and jailhouse Bach.
I get asked a lot if the orchestra program decreases recidivism. My answer? I have no idea. I keep this program going because it nourishes the spirit, theirs and mine. If you enjoy playing an instrument, there is nothing better than playing in a group of committed musicians where the music becomes bigger than yourself.
Our spirit is contagious. We have a steady stream of Anchorage Symphony musicians coming into the prison for special classes, and they play all of our public concerts. The Bowheads, a local fiddling group, provides summer classes while Gabrielle takes her summer break. And we have celebrities at our annual holiday concert, too. Last year, it was violinist Linda Rosenthal, who has played around the world as a soloist and a chamber musician
This year, cellist Armen Ksajikian, will be joining us for our holiday concert, featuring a selection of music from Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto to Pirates of the Caribbean. Armen has been principal cellist for the Los Angeles Chamber and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and as scoring musician has over 900 motion picture soundtracks to his credit. No one hears Armen Kasijian play in a prison gymnasium, but you can on December 5th at Hiland.
Please join us this year on Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 1:30 pm in celebrating the rehabilitative and redemptive power of music, and in helping these women find their way back into society.
Purchase tickets
· At Metro Music in Metro Mall on Benson across from Sears
· Email Pati Crofut for tickets
· Credit card purchases at Centertix
The concert is held inside the prison. All concert goers must be pre-cleared by submitting a driver’s license number PRIOR to the concert. Email driver’s license number and State to Pati Crofut NO LATER THAN December 4!
Find the Orchestra on Facebook HERE.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 AM
This is such an awesome program! I admire all the people who work so hard to make it work and keep it going. I hope to be in Anchorage someday when there’s a concert so I can attend.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:01 AM
being a violinist myself, i completely understood the mental benefits of playing the the orchestra while incarcerated……..what a fabulous gift to folks in prison. understanding music is as powerful as learning to read.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Standing..and clapping for you all..from here..and yes..we grow..who mentors, who sweat the lines and fingering, and vibrato..still have the scars on my fingers..from the high school years. Health and dreams..and babys to those who wish them..as time builds rainbows..around those many, many shoulders. What is wished for..in each future..Will happen..and may arrive when you..least expect it, and in ways..you never imagined possible. Dream good women..dream!
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 AM
WOW~ What a beautiful thing….Keep the faith…
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:34 AM
This is such a fabulous idea!
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:48 AM
I’m moved to tears. What a wonderful thing you do. Have you any CD’s? I would buy one.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:55 AM
i’ve been to a couple of the concerts, and contributed to the orchestra annually since it began. pati, janice, gabbi, et al should be congratulated. while a lot of people have lamented that incarceration has stopped focusing on rehabilitation and is really just warehousing prisoners — these people actually did something about it. bravo!
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 AM
This is a beautiful piece of journalism. Thank you for sharing it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Kudos to Pati and Gabi for their boundless energy in nurturing this truly inspiring orchestra with the women of Hiland. I encourage all who can attend their performance to do so, as it is a moving experience. Captive audience takes on a whole new meaning. These women work hard to find peace through music. Their opportunity to give back to the world beyond their walls is redemptive and deserves our steadfast support.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:20 AM
This is fabulous. My mom retired from Corrections as a Lieutenant from a women’s prison here in CT. I met some of her inmates. She actually denied the promotion to Captain while she was there because it would have taken her away from the population and put her behind a desk. She loved those women and treated them as human beings. I actually did a speech in a 4-H public speaking competition at the State finals about these women.
Kudos to you, dear voice from the Flats. May the symphony of your life and the lives of those who make the most beautiful, heartfelt music echo out to those who need it most.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:33 AM
BRAVA Ladies! Music heals and reveals. I have no such talents, but my music appreciation abounds. Play on! Wish I could be there to support your concert, I certainly will repeat this post to my facebook friends in Anchorage to help spread the word.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:53 AM
What an amazing project! Be the change. Bless you.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:02 PM
Music soothes the soul.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:06 PM
What an inspiring story! Thank you.
I’m surprised that funding has not been made contingent on showing that participation in the orchestra reduces recidivism–the bean counters have to justify everything.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:11 PM
The program is funded by concert ticket sales (90%) and very small grants (Zonta). It costs $10000 per year for 22 women roughly $450 per musician per year.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:22 PM
The beauty of the human spirit… how it can soar, regardless of the circumstance! Kudos and blessings to those who are seeing and helping that occur.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Clapping all around – AKM for sharing your blog through the Voices from the Flats, Patti for starting the orchestra, and writing about it, Gabi for conducting, and Dean Marshall for not just ‘throwing away the key’. Fantastic!! If they ever make a cd I would buy it too, also
What a wonderful story and great life lessons these women are learning. I would imagine that if the bean counters did in fact count those beans they would discover a reduced recidivism – maybe not by much but every bit counts.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Bravo!
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:06 PM
great program, to bad i live so far away
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:15 PM
great program, wished i lived closer
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 PM
This is such a great program!! I wish they would make a CD so there would be more opportunities to support them.
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:14 PM
Excellent idea.
Women’s prison programs, because they are such a small part of prison budgeting often get short shrift. It’s good that some one in the white shirts listened and facilitated this effort.
Regardless of what kind of music is played or heard it can reach places in the mind and heart that we close to other sensations, and music can bring peace and it can help heal. It can be a haven in a chaotic world.
Great for AKM to print this article. The world is always bigger than we each in our small universes think it to be.
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:51 PM
Great article .more prisons should adopt something like this and make sure it is supported.I would think it would make a long week or day shorter and keep minds occupied.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:02 PM
What an inspiring story.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 PM
What an absolutely wonderful program! It makes total sense. Music is a natural healer, to the mind, soul and body. Play on beautiful women, never ever stop.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:31 PM
I don’t have faintest idea what, or where, the cockles of my heart are, but this story warmed all of them.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:35 PM
I’m sending this out to my musician friends.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:46 PM
I’m sending it to all my colleagues who only theorize about the power of art.
Thank you.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:40 PM
damn – one hellofa job of reporting Pati Crofut, i’ll be watching for your byline…
and goddamn that we’re still so primitive we think prisons are any answer…
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:41 PM
Inspirational post. Thank you.
I can’t help thinking how important and life-changing a similar passion for creating an orchestra for children/teens at risk would be…..before they committed the crimes which resulted in “long sentences.”
“Redemption” could be replaced by “Deliverance.”
November 4th, 2009 at 8:41 AM
as a musician and a human being, i wasn’t able to get past the line about ‘practicing those eighth notes’ before i was weeping. still can’t see to type very well. bless you for bringing, on many levels, light into darkness.