Good morning,
Can you believe we start classes in a couple of weeks?!? To tell you the truth, I’m excited to go back but not excited all at once! I hope you all have had an amazing and restful summer. Now, it’s time for back to work, school, and for some of us, prison.
About Prison:
For the past two years, I have been leading choir rehearsals at a men’s correctional facility called, Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Bordentown, NJ. I have had many students join me throughout my time there and we would like to increase our repertoire and our available number of student directors each week.
I have many ideas for our work this year, including a look at what O Passo can do for our ensemble, balancing major/minor triads, and composing our own poetry to set to music. I would also like to include student works from WCC, as well as our combined compositions, created during the rehearsal.
Time Commitment:
Wednesday nights, we leave the WCC campus between 6 and 6:15pm. We make the drive to the Rider campus and head to Bordentown from there with Rev. Dawn Adamy. We are at the prison from 7-8:30pm, which usually puts us back at WCC around 9:15ish.
I would also like to meet at least once outside of Wednesday nights to discuss our plans for future rehearsals as well as reflections on previous rehearsals. This would require a huge chunk of time. This date can be in person or via Skype. I would also love a journal entry, submitted to me, after each rehearsal. I keep a journal, as well, and I hope to combine each entry to keep our blog updated.
This activity is also good for PDA credit!
What if I cannot make Wednesday nights but I really want to be involved?
Not to worry!
Last year, we offered a music theory class to the guys on Thursday nights. I am unsure of the nature of this class but I am certain that it helps our rehearsals for the following week.
I would like to start something new this semester for those who like the idea of teaching music at a prison, but either do not have the time, or are not sure they can bring themselves to go to a prison each week. We need new repertoire! Our ensemble can sing in unison and we can even manage to sing a canon or two. These pieces can be range anywhere from rap to spiritual and classical to jazz. We do not have access to a piano each week, so all of our work is done a capella. Those who would like to help choose, arrange, and catalog our repertoire would be an important asset to our ensemble. We are hoping to give a concert at some point in the near future and it would be nice to have one place to find all of our music.
Want more information?
Please, feel free to contact me via email at:
