Ninety-six residents of the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater sat in rapt attention as a pianist, violinist and cellist played a 60-minute classical music concert.

The residents sat at metal tables in the linoleum-floored dining hall of the prison facility that, with its tall windows, was almost reminiscent of a high school cafeteria. The classical trio — pianist Walter Delahunt, violinist Jonathan Crow and cellist Joseph Johnson — was set up in front of a brick wall, the grand piano polished to a jet black sheen.

Next to that piano was a blue banner bearing the logo of the Looking at the Stars Foundation, a charity group that puts on performances of classical music for prison residents, residents in long-term care, refugees and war victims in Canada, Lithuania, Ukraine and now, for the first time, in Minnesota.

“It’s a completely different kind of audience than an orchestra,” Crow said after the performance. “In an orchestra sometimes you might hear a cough or maybe someone had a bad day and just wasn’t into it. … This crowd was amazing, they were listening so intently for the entire 60 minutes.”

Crow said that, more and more, artists like him are taking their music to places outside of the traditional orchestra halls, and to people who ordinarily might not be privileged to hear it live.

“I love music. … I want to share it with people who have never heard it, and hope it affects them like it did me.”

The performance had an opera theme, according to Looking at the Stars CEO and Founder Dmitri Kanovich, who prologued the performance with a personal speech about his flight from the Soviet Union when he was younger.

“I was born in a bigger jail than you know: I was born in Soviet Russia. … I was betrayed,” Kanovich said, describing friends and family who abandoned him after an accident left him hospitalized. “I was doomed to a miserable existence, until, by complete accident, I got to listen to classical music on the hospital radio.”

That experience awoke a love and appreciation for classical music that gave him the will to keep going, he told the crowd, and eventually drove him to start the charity.

“I do what my heart tells me to do. … You think I’m crazy? I am.”

Peter Lombart, an administrator and board member for Looking at the Stars, said he first met Kanovich in a Toronto restaurant frequented by journalists and performers. Kanovich invited Lombart and a friend to his home for a performance of classical music, and then told him his idea for what would eventually become the charity. The rest, Lombart said, is history.

“The joy we feel it brings people … if it leads people to reflect or feel something or change, that’s a great thing,” Lombart said.

‘It was beautiful’

Violinist Jonathan Crow and cellist Joseph Johnson perform a string duet for residents and staff at Stillwater correctional facility. Their performance received a standing ovation. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)

The performance included classics from Bach, Albeniz, the “jazz before jazz” Gershwin and the master of angst, Brahms, as well as an orchestral version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” arranged by Yo-Yo Ma.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” received a standing ovation from the prison residents.

“It was just so exciting,” resident Shawn Benson said. “I thought I would only be hearing music I had never heard of.”

The performance was Benson’s first time hearing classical music performed live. He said that getting to hear it was meaningful.

“This is not a pleasant place to be in, it gives me hope for the future,” Benson said.

Even some of the 50 staff who were there said it was their first time hearing classical music performed live.

Related Articles

St. Paul and Minneapolis bird alliances drop ‘Audubon’ from their names

St. Paul seeks to acquire Marshall Avenue rooming house for homeless ‘Familiar Faces’

St. Paul approves $3.35 million for Kimball Court, considers $2.16 million ask for Mary Hall

Q&A: How an obsession with Girl Scout cookies turned into a new youth leadership program

Washington County: Volunteers sought to rake leaves

“It’s a positive aspect in a negative environment,” said Toua Yang, who has worked at the Stillwater facility for 14 years. “It’s an introduction to an aspect of society that they would otherwise not be able to experience.”

Resident Michael Hall had also never seen a live performance of classical music. “It was beautiful, you could really feel the emotions of the players. … Some of the songs I could feel the joy, or romance.”

Hall said he felt the concert was important to experience.

“Prison populations aren’t often acknowledged,” Hall said. “Most of the people here are going to get out, and I think they need to experience some of this softness.”