A musician's thanks Carmen (Fantasy)@Dartmoor Prison

Kerenza peacock - Violin
This was honestly the most worthwhile and fulfilling performance I have ever done. Thanks to the inspired vision of Adam Green we were able to put on a performance of an opera inside Dartmoor Prison, with inmates as choir and audience. Chatting with the inmates, and performing alongside them changed many things for me. When I first heard their voices in chorus, I was stunned by the glorious sound and incredibly high standard. I also noted that it seemed that when they were singing with their full hearts, they were experiencing total freedom.
(In rehearsal I had discovered the arranger had given me as the penultimate number, Sarasate's crazy Carmen Fantasy to be played on stage amongst the choir. The only thing I felt nervous about inside the Prison, was whether I would managed all the virtuoso passages or have a memory lapse!!! But the inmates were so kind, encouraging, respectful and genuinely appreciative that it turned out to be totally fun and I will imagine they are my audience every time I have to play something difficult!)

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