Did you know that some Sonoma County jail inmates are now composing classical music, through a county program called “Music for the Future”? During the first two-month run of the program, which ended in late March, eight inmates of all ages from the county’s Main Adult Detention Facility in Santa Rosa learned about the works of Beethoven and how to compose their own, with guidance from students at the Juilliard School in New York City. They learned about “music composition, music theory, score-reading and how to play stringed instruments,” according to the county. And it all culminated on the morning of Monday, March 25, with a triumphant NYC concert that was streamed into the jail via Zoom. It was a profound and emotional affair: Musicians from Juilliard’s Edith String Quartet performed a series of 1- to 3-minute compositions written by each of the inmates, while the men who wrote them — and their jailmates — looked on. A video of one of the incarcerated composers listening to his work come to life, uploaded to TikTok by the Press Democrat, went semi-viral after the concert. As the PD wrote: “In the video, the composer can be seen smiling, playing along with his fingers, and clapping with the crowd. Throughout the video, he has a look of pride on his face.” In a recent interview about the program, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s official who oversees it said: “They never realized in their life that they were capable of actually composing a piece of classical music. It has given them hope for their future. It is so amazing to see the light in their eyes and just the transformation in their behavior.” And the PD reports that the Juilliard students were blown away by how quickly some of the inmates picked up the art of composing. From the story: “The students progressed rapidly. One moment that solidified this growth was when a student identified a specific type of chord immediately after the quartet played it. That same student had never been to a concert before that week. ‘It’s a challenging concept even for trained musicians and he just got it immediately,’ violinist Gabrielle Despres said. ‘I think it was just really beautiful.'” The music-in-jail theme has been big around here lately: Earlier this year, about 10 miles east, the county also opened a recording studio inside the juvie detention center along Highway 12, in the Sonoma Valley area — an “educational opportunity” for young inmates, as well as “an outlet for expression and emotions.” The studio, called Free Voices, is tricked out with top-of-the-line mics, recording software and instruments. The PD stopped by recently to see how that program is coming along; keep scrolling to watch some of the kids lay down hip-hop tracks. (Source: Press Democrat & Press Democrat & Sonoma County Government via ConstantContact & Sonoma County Government)
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