Newswise — A men's chorus combining voices of minimum-security inmates from Lansing Correctional Facility and volunteers is breaking ground in music education.
Former elementary music teacher Mary L. Cohen, now a University of Kansas doctoral student in music education, has spent about two and a half years examining some of the therapeutic concepts that the founder of the Lansing, Kan. state prison choir, Elvera Voth, senses from a lifetime in music education as well as more than 10 years directing inmate choirs.
"With music, we are trying to make better neighbors of these folks (inmates), some of whom will eventually get out," Voth once told a newspaper reporter.
Voth thinks the experience of learning to sing, following the discipline of rehearsals and learning to perform in harmony teaches many inmates to work in a community, an experience they may not have had.
Cohen notes that most of the inmates not only learn to sing and to read music, but they also learn to sing in classical music pieces often in other languages.
Her survey of inmates in Lansing prison choir indicates "inmates tend to view performing in the choir as learning something about themselves — developing musical and social skills, and expanding their musical tastes — while volunteers who sang with the inmates reported that they have learned to view inmates as individuals."
Cohen is coordinator of special projects with Arts in Prison, the expanded program that includes the choir and other arts education programs primarily offered at correctional facilities in Lansing and Osawatomie, Kan.. Cohen recruits, trains and supports volunteer artists and instructors who teach in the program. She has also directed a choir of 12 inmates in an Osawatomie facility, also administered by the Lansing warden.
The Lansing prison choir, called the East Hills Singers, will perform at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, at First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway, in Lawrence, Kan.
The Lawrence concert "How Can I Keep From Singing" will be an eclectic mix of works by Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, Verdi's "Va Pensiero" (a paraphrase of Psalm 137), "Down to the River to Pray" and "Rap of Redemption: I Wish I Never Hurt You," a unique and powerful blend of an inmate's rap lyrics with Gregorian chants.
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