News story

Orchestra helps prisoners make A Bigger Sound

Offenders at a prison in Hertfordshire are working with musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a music rehabilitation project.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

‘A Bigger Sound’ is a project organised by charity and community organisations Music in Prisons and Rideout and the RPO. The project gives prisoners at HMP The Mount  the opportunity to take part in music and creative arts workshops, culminating in a cross-arts performance inside the prison at the end of September .

Alec Haylor from RPO said:  ‘All the musicians have had to focus and work as a group to create and rehearse the collection of completely original pieces that we have been working on.

‘Although we’re only in week one, we’re already really excited about the material that’s been produced!’

The Prison Service works with a number of charities and community organisations to encourage the use of music as a rehabilitative tool in prisons -  one of many approaches taken to tackle reoffending.

For many prisoners the discipline of learning new skills increases self-esteem, with music and creative arts also helping them to develop numeracy, literacy and social skills involved in working with others.

You can read more about the Bigger Sound project and follow its progress over the next four weeks at the RPO’s blog.

Published 8 September 2011