Noble and volunteers bring music to prison

Weston Noble brought some light into the lives of a choir of prisoners this January. Noble worked with a choir of volunteers in Kansas City who performed a concert with a choir of prisoners as part of Art in Prisons, a program that began a few years ago to bring music and other artistic expressions to U.S. prisons.

“What they wanted to do was to bring some joy into the lives of people who are in prison,” Noble said.

Noble was asked to lead a choir of 250 volunteers from Kansas City and the surrounding suburbs who would perform in a joint concert with the choir of prisoners.

Noble is known in the Luther community for directing Nordic Choir until 2005, but he has many other musical experiences under his belt.

“Weston has done things that are not very common,” Assistant Professor of music Tony Guzman said. “He’s extremely youthful.”

The volunteer choir performed Jan. 30 for the prisoners in Kansas City. The prisoners also had their chance to perform for the choir volunteers and a few community members who were there to watch.

“They turned out to be really quite good,” Noble said. “So when they finished singing their part, we all gave them a big standing ovation.”

After the concert was over, Noble decided to shake hands with all the prisoners.

“There were no guards on stage, and I thought, well I’m just going to do what I want to do,” Noble said. “So I went up to each prisoner and shook their hand, and they seemed to appreciate that very much. Then I came to this prisoner, and I knew from his body language that he wanted a hug, so I hugged him, and then he started to cry.”

This was a special day for the prisoners, the volunteers and Noble. Noble remembers one of the prisoners told him, “You will never know what it means to get a standing ovation when you have been told all your life that you are a failure.”

Interacting with the prisoner’s choir was a life-changing experience for Noble.

“I later on stopped and thought, you know, how many weeks, how many months or how many years or maybe a whole life time that he’d never been hugged,” Noble said. “Maybe that’s the reason why he was in prison, you know.”

Guzman thought music contributed much to the event.

“It was a transformational experience for those prisoners,” Guzman said. “It is something that really represents the value and the power of music.”

The experience helped Noble see society in a different way. He is hoping to go back to Kansas City to visit the choir of prisoners and see their rehearsal room.

Overall, Noble was satisfied with the experience.

“Sometimes you get more joy when you give than when you receive,” Noble said.