New program seeks to rehabilitate Sonoma County jail inmates by teaching music composition
The hums and harmonies from the string quartet flowed up and down, and the picks and plucks sharply exited the speakers into a classroom at the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility.
Eight incarcerated men and a small crowd listened March 25 as a quartet — Juilliard School students on two violins, a cello and a viola — performed eight pieces, each composed by one of the inmates.
Fluttery movements and fluid melodies dissipated wanting, dissonant chords and bled into sharp and distinct dynamics. The composers had written some comments, including “cartoony” and “life is risky but never boring,” in their sheet music that dictated the vibe and emotions to be expressed in the music.
The performance in New York City was broadcast live to the Santa Rosa jail via Zoom.
The students’ pieces were the culmination of about nine weeks of work through a program called Music for the Future, which teaches incarcerated individuals about live music, composition and the life and compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven. The underlying goal is to help them gain skills to better themselves so they don’t return to jail after being released.
The music was played in no particular order. The inmates were composers in this moment and looked down at their music to follow the movements. Some twiddled their thumbs, gripped their faces with their hands and bounced legs in anticipation. Some teared up. Some smiled when the crowd clapped.
Eleven students were selected for the class. Each was already enrolled in Five Keys, a nonprofit charter school that offers high school and some higher learning courses in the jail. Each actively participated in classes.
They learned the basics in week one. They had written a short piece of music by the end of week three.
Since then, they wrote nonstop and stayed committed to class. Only one had to leave because of an infraction.
That was an accomplishment. And on March 25, they celebrated.
‘Music is my life’
For the past two and a half months, the men in the program devoted hours of their week to classical music. But the journey began later last year when Sonoma County jail administrators expressed interest in the class, offered through the nonprofit Project: Music Heals Us.
The nonprofit, founded in 2014, provides live music and music education to marginalized communities, such as people who are homeless or incarcerated, with limited access to the art form.
The organization reached out to Five Keys in November 2023 and soon after the planning began. Students were in class by January.
The Edith String Quartet, and two other instructors visited in the third week. They played a concert in the jail for the men, Sheriff’s Office staff and about 60 others.
After the concert, the men and musicians talked about what they noticed in the music. One student remarked he liked when they “go soft and then raise up,” referring to dynamics, and another said he noticed the kind of dance the musicians did as they played.
One said he loved when they picked at the strings, “like a guitar but not.”
The week continued in this pattern: listening and then learning and the final step, writing, said in-person instructor and composer Ben Sellick.
Each day was a different topic: melody, rhythm, Beethoven history, harmony and texture, meaning the distribution of music throughout the quartet. The class focused on Beethoven because he created some of his most famous work after he went through some of his biggest struggles, including losing his hearing, Sellick said.
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.”
By the end of the week, each of the 11 men had written a short piece.
The songs demonstrated artistry that seemed advanced even for experienced musicians. They had lulls and harmonies and smart pacing and were filled with emotion.
One student, who couldn’t wrap his head around music notes, wrote calligraphy on the staff for the quartet to interpret.
Another student composer surprised the audience and students with his skill.
“Hey, let this guy out of jail,” one of the other students shouted after his music was done.
“Music is my life,” the composer later said, adding that he didn’t know how to read or write music before the class. And he was grateful.
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