Prison Music Week 2024

For the second year, we are delighted to be part of a collective effort to make a noise about the powerful impact of music in prisons!

This week prison music charities are getting together to put on music events in prisons up and down the country. Our friends Beating Time, Sing Inside, Changing Tunes, Finding Rhythms and Prison Choir Project will be showcasing the huge variety and quality of music being made in our prisons.

Music is a lifeline for many inside prison. It takes all forms, including choirs, bands, instrumentalists, song-writing. Much of it gets recorded or performed for other people serving sentences, their families and support networks. Music brings people together. It enables us to express deep, shared emotions. When we perform for others we prove to ourselves and to them that we have something to give and we have worth. Music also improves mental health and creates a strong sense of social inclusion.

Some of us go in every week, year-round, to build musical communities in prison. We become assets the prison can use. We sing and play at everything – from celebrations to funerals. Some of us do short intensive ambitious projects, perform original songs, write and record albums, put on operas and musical theatre productions. Whatever the medium, music has the power to transport, sooth, heal and hold us.

The organisations involved in Prison Music Week

As small organisations, we are banding together to support each other and raise awareness of all the music projects happening across the prisons we work in. All week our music directors and musicians in residence will be delivering choir sessions, instrument lessons, song-writing workshops, collaborative performances, and more! We will be sharing our events across social media, in print and on radio stations in prison and out.

Please do follow the organisations involved on social media and join the conversation using the hashtags #PrisonMusicWeek

Beating Time: Twitter: @Beating_Time | Facebook: @BeatingTimeCharity | LinkedIn: @BeatingTime

Sing Inside: Twitter: @SingInsideUK | Facebook: @SingInsideUpdates | Instagram: @SingInside

Changing Tunes: Twitter: @ChangingTunesSW | Facebook: @changingtunes | Instagram: @changingtunes

Finding Rhythms: Twitter: @findingrhythms | Facebook: @FindingRhythms | Instagram: @findingrhythms

Prison Choir Project: Twitter: @prisonchoir | Facebook: @prisonchoirproject

What we’re doing to celebrate Prison Music Week

This week we’re in prison with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ‘Resound’ performing and recording lullabies written with dads for their children, kicking off a new phase of our Lullaby Project collaboration supported by Arts Council England.

An example of a previous song is below. The recording was made in 2020 during lockdown as part of the ‘Proms at Home’ series, for a special edition looking at the Lullaby Project. Our thanks to the BBC Proms for permission to share. ‘Daddy’s Little Man’ was co-written with a dad in prison for his young son. ITT musician Nick Hayes, who orchestrates all the lullabies for the RPO ensembles, created this special choral arrangement specially for Proms At Home. The BBC Singers did a fabulous job recording themselves remotely for this film, made during the difficult lockdown restrictions.

This week we also have several of our musician in residence sessions running our regular sessions.

For us, it’s also vitally important to continue to support people after they leave prison, which is why we set up the Sounding Out through-the-gate-programme.

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