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In concert halls, a familiar scenario unfolds with remarkable consistency: some of the audience will approach a classical concert with trepidation. They often mention the same things, “I’m not sure if I’m listening correctly,” or, “I read the program notes but I’m not sure if I could detect the intricacies mentioned in the notes.” I hear this a lot from patrons. There is a desire to follow perceived rules, to be correct and proper, and assume that program notes are the key to enlightenment and acceptance. However, people learn and listen differently so there is …

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The tuning began and a small part of the audience erupted into laughter. Eight residents of Walker State Faith and Character Based Prison were sitting in the front row of the audience, laughing with their violin instructor who was on stage standing with her husband, a guitarist. Tuning. Two hours earlier in the rehearsal, violinist and instructor Mary Margaret Neel joked with the violin class of prisoners that her guitarist husband would take “forever to tune.” This rehearsal was the first time I’d seen the violin class since I started it back in September of …

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Below is a review/essay about the opera Arts Capacity collaborated on with the prisoners of Walker State Faith and Character Based Prison. The opera premiered on January 9th in the prison, and had a second performance on the 10th in public theater in Chattanooga. Since this project has been too close to my heart, I don’t feel I can offer a proper summary of the event itself. Instead, a Walker State Prison resident wrote this essay which sums up the whole experience better than I could have imagined. I’m very proud of the various talents that are …

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“When the music started, the prison walls disappeared.” In a recent issue of the “Walker Talker”, the in-house Walker State Prison newspaper, one author attested to the work and broad impact Arts Capacity programming has on the culture at Walker State when they wrote that the work of Arts Capacity is “transforming the culture inside the prison.” In another article written about a recent recital of ours they wrote, “When the music started, the prison walls disappeared.” It went on, “The first composition involved the violin, piano, and saxophone. The sounds, feelings, and images that …

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