Songs in the Key of Free is a series of composer/musician workshops in which Philly musicians and songwriters and classically trained musicians from The Curtis Institute develop and celebrate the musical talent of incarcerated men and women via performance-based classes in composing, arranging, and musicianship. This event is part of the Restorative Justice Voices project.

This multimedia concert will include audio, video, and photographs from inside SCI Graterford, and a house band playing live. Twenty-five inside participants, many of them lifelong musicians and performers, have written and will perform a collection of songs, all of which address mass incarceration. Not only are these men stellar musicians, including horn players, conga players, and rappers, they’re also talented songwriters. Hear the world premieres of these songs alongside audio interviews with the men about their earliest memories of music and video footage of these collaborations. Expect to be connected to these remarkable men in a way you’ve never experienced before.