The Freedom of Music at Eastern Correctional Facility
Facilitated by Patricia Santos and Jeremy Ajani Jordan
The Freedom of Music provided participants with an opportunity to express themselves artistically while building self-esteem and camaraderie. By the end of this workshop, students achieved music literacy, obtained increased proficiency in playing musical instruments/singing, and composed and performed their own music in an organized and supportive concert setting.
This video features works written and performed by students on the culminating day of Musicambia’s first workshop, The Freedom of Music, presented in partnership with Wave Farm. The performance took place in March 2026 following a 20-week workshop held from October 2025 through March 2026.
Musicambia (“music” + “change”) helps people in prison and jail read, write, play, and perform music, cultivating collaborative communities that benefit the health and well-being of everyone involved. Its Flagship Program, which began at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 2014, meets biweekly from September to June, providing four hours of instruction to 30 incarcerated participants. Musicambia also has programs at Bedford Hills, Fishkill, and Eastern Correctional Facilities in New York, and in Kansas and California. Musicambia has created programs in 12 facilities across six states.
Musicambia's Teaching Artists hold positions in the Attacca Quartet and Imani Winds, and have taught at Juilliard, Curtis, Princeton, and Peabody. They have won GRAMMY awards, and collaborated with Pulitzer Prize winners and pop-stars like Prince. Their musical backgrounds span Western classical, jazz, hip-hop, and popular genres, as well as Indian classical ragas.