CHORAL SINGING IN PRISONS
Country: USA
In this presentation, participants will be taken on a journey around the globe to see and hear the transformative power of choral singing in prisons. From prison choirs that operate “under the radar” to those that are in the public eye performing, touring, and recording, these ensembles make a strong and lasting impact on the prisoner-singers, conductors, and communities at large.
The presenters will share songs and quotes from prisoner-singers and conductors who reflect on the experience and impact of singing in prisons. The session will empower conductors with practical strategies for engaging with some of the most forgotten people in our world.
Dr. Jamie Hillman is a multi-faceted musician who is active as a conductor, singer, pianist, music educator, and composer. He currently serves as an assistant professor of music at Gordon College (north of Boston, MA), where he teaches undergraduate and graduate music education courses and directs the Gordon College Choir and Men's Choir. As a Boston University Prison Arts Scholar and faculty member of BU's Metropolitan College/Prison Education Program, he has co-initiated a choral music program at a large, medium-high security men's prison in Massachusetts.
Dr. Hillman is an examiner for Conservatory Canada and has guest conducted, adjudicated, performed, and presented at festivals and conferences throughout Canada, the United States, and Asia. His co-editorial work includes numerous editions of Arabic, Asian, Latin American, and Western choral pieces published by Earthsongs and Hinshaw Music. Hillman holds an associate diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) and degrees from University of Western Ontario (London, Canada), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Boston University. Dr. Hillman is the 2012 laureate of the Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting from the Ontario Arts Council.
Dr. André de Quadros studied violin with Adrian de Mello and conducting with Joachim Buehler and Robert Rosen. He holds artistic directorships at Aswatuna – Arab Choral Festival; the Bali International Choir Festival, Indonesia; the London International Music Festival; and CONDUCTING 21C-Musical Leadership for a New Century, Sweden. He is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Educational Inquiry, and Arts & Health.
An ardent human rights and social change activist, André de Quadros has been at the forefront of efforts for music and social change. A staunch advocate for the democratisation of music, André de Quadros teaches in two Massachusetts prisons. He is a member of the Scientific Board of the International Network for Singing Hospitals and a member of the steering committee of Conductors Without Borders. He was part of a multiyear, externally funded arts and public health research project that was pioneered in Peru and may be replicated in other marginalised parts of the world to discover the power between the arts and public health.