Carnegie Hall Launches Sing Sing Voices Video Collection Marking 15 Years at Sing Sing

Carnegie Hall is celebrating years of its Musical Connections program this season with Sing Sing Voices, a new collection of video playlists featuring original music created by participants and alumni of the Hall's long-standing residency at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Now available to the public for the first time, the three playlists feature video reflections from the men who are members of the Musical Connections artistic community, along with filmed introductions by Grammy Award-winning artists Common, Joyce DiDonato, and Arturo O'Farrill—all of whom have collaborated with the men in Musical Connections workshops and performed with them at the maximum-security prison in Westchester County.

The three Sing Sing Voices playlists contain recorded performances from the past 15 years—each centered around a distinct theme—showcasing nearly 50 original songs spanning classical, jazz, blues, gospel, reggae, hip-hop, and more, offering listeners a compelling view into the depth, artistry, and humanity of music-making inside Sing Sing.

• Reimagining Change, introduced by acclaimed rapper and actor Common, features music about justice, hope, advocacy, and building a more equitable world.
   
• Inner Transformation, introduced by opera star Joyce DiDonato, highlights songs of solitude, resilience, and personal evolution.
   
• Exploring Identity, introduced by renowned composer, pianist, and bandleader Arturo O'Farrill, celebrates music of ancestry, belief, and belonging.

Together, the music represented on these playlists captures only a fraction of the hundreds of original songs created by men at Sing Sing as part of the music residency over the past 15 years.

Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program provides intensive training workshops in composition, songwriting, instrumental skills, and performance for men who are incarcerated. The participants engage in a yearlong learning experience, creating and performing music side-by-side with visiting professional artists across a broad range of musical interests, traditions, and compositions. Several concerts throughout the year for the facility's general population as well as family members, Sing Sing staff, and invited guests, feature original works written and performed by the men with professional musicians drawn from the Musical Connections teaching artist roster. Since the residency began 15 years ago—in partnership with New York State Department of Corrections—more than 300 original pieces have been composed by program participants, with the Musical Connections Ensemble collaborating in concerts with acclaimed featured guests, including Common, Joyce DiDonato, Arturo O'Farrill, and Rhiannon Giddens.

Through Musical Connections, participants are invited to unlock their creative potential, building meaningful community and finding healing through music. The workshop also serves as a vehicle for personal empowerment and a catalyst for change. In addition to participants' musical and artistic accomplishments, participation builds skills and provides a positive way for the men to explore and express themselves; accomplish goals on their own; and to communicate and work productively with others—important skills to develop as they prepare to return home to their own communities. (Roughly 95% of the men incarcerated at Sing Sing will eventually return home.)

As an important component of the program, an advisory committee of participants who have now come home was established in 2016. The group meets monthly in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing to support each other, inform the Musical Connections program, and continue to make music, performing together as The Freedom Trap across New York City and beyond. On Saturday, July 11 at 3:00 p.m., The Freedom Trap will perform a set and also join Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra on stage at the amphitheater in Riverbank State Park in Upper Manhattan as part of the free Carnegie Hall Citywide concert series.

“As we celebrate 15 years of music-making at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, we are excited to share with the world some of the men's extraordinary original music through the Sing Sing Voices playlists,” said Sarah Johnson, Chief Education Officer and Director of the Weill Music Institute. “These playlists illustrate ways the Musical Connections residency fosters self-expression, musical skill building, resilience, and community. Sing Sing Voices is an invitation to all of us to listen, to reflect, and to recognize the creative force and humanity in people who live within prison walls. It's an opportunity to explore and celebrate the power of music in support of personal and social transformation.”

“I want my music to show that it helped me change my life and gave me a new outlook on how I live my life now,” said Paul, a Musical Connections program participant.

“This body of music is also about the joy of change,” said Ivan, a former Musical Connections participant at Sing Sing who has returned home and is now a member of the Musical Connections Advisory Committee. “People have an idea, I think, of what type of music or what type of art people on the inside make. And they've got it wrong. The music inside is celebratory. It's joyous. And it's not because people are celebrating their conditions. They're not celebrating the fact that they've committed crimes … But it's an opportunity—a very rare opportunity—to pour some light into the world.”

“I think anyone who listens to the Sing Sing Voices playlists will be moved by the honesty, vulnerability, and artistry expressed through the men's creative work,” said Joyce DiDonato. “I've been amazed—and often transformed—by the extraordinary experience of making music alongside the Musical Connections program participants since my first visit to Sing Sing in 2015. I imagine listeners will feel that same impact.”

Listen to Highlights of Sing Sing Voices Video Playlists:

Inner Transformation Playlist—Introduced by Joyce DiDonato
      “Holding Out Hope” by Kenyatta
      “I Must Confess” by Dexter

Reimagining Change Playlist—Introduced by Common
      “Victory” by Alfred
      “Pinocchio” by James

Exploring Identity Playlist—Introduced by Arturo O'Farrill
      “Amazing Grace / Overwhelmed” by Alfred
      “Kranz” by Shadrich