What people say.
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Andrea Coomber, KC, CEO of the Howard League for Penal Reform
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’Never have I gone into a prison and come out feeling as uplifted as I have when I’ve gone in to listen to Music in the Ville…. It brings joy and beauty through the transformative power of music to people who feel forgotten and disengaged.... One of the amazing things about Music in the Ville is it takes people away from that experience. Music in the Ville is a charity that brings light into some dark places and gives hope to people who feel they don’t have a lot of hope.’
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Speech made at a Music in the Ville fundraising event at the Supreme Court 2024
Michael Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne, Justice of the Supreme Court
'Music breaks down barriers if you’re just sitting listening, but even more so if you’re involved and participating. And that’s what Music in the Ville achieves: they don’t just go in to perform…. they also, in an amazingly short time, teach those who want to come and be part of the workshop sessions to do it themselves…It’s the participation that is so destructive of barriers….. Prisons are all about barriers: the whole concept of a prison is it’s a barrier between inmates and the public, and then there are barriers between different prisoners, there are barriers between prisoners and prison staff (sometimes, not always). And music just dissolves them all.’
Speech made at a Music in the Ville fundraising event at the Supreme Court 2024
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Jonathan Aitken, former politician with lived experience of prison, Chaplain of HMP Pentonville
‘There is darkness in prisons and it doesn’t get light very often - it’s difficult to create hope…Small injections of joy and hope don’t come all that often. Music in the Ville really lightens our darkness. Music in the Ville is trailblazing. It deserves our support.’
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Speech made at a Music in the Ville fundraising event at the Supreme Court 2024
Cat Lawrence, former deputy governor of HMP Pentonville
‘It had been a very tricky week. Out of nowhere came Emma and her musicians. Emma sang a beautiful song. It took the heat out of the prison and changed the mood. It was tangible - I will never forget the feeling that that music created. Music in the Ville creates the right environment for positive change to happen and that is really important… Please do everything you can to support this wonderful charity because it makes a real difference to all of us at Pentonville.’
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Speech made at a Music in the Ville fundraising event at the Supreme Court 2024
Alastair Campbell writer, podcaster, communicator, campaigner and strategist
‘New European highlight of the week was going to Pentonville prison to join with the ‘Music in the Ville’ team, professional musicians who run music classes for the prisoners. A bit of opera, Vivaldi on the violin, an awesome Bob Marley singalong session. The moderator also got us all improvising and composing our own songs, and it was good to see quiet and reserved men slowly getting into it. As for a prisoner named Bleu, wow… a rapper who makes the backing track music by slapping his chest, and whose lyrics were superb. Yes, of course I had my bagpipes, and after playing in the class, and getting some of them dancing, I was then asked to play to the whole prison, in the central hall to which all the wings are connected. There is a lot wrong with our prisons (for example, Pentonville was built in 1842 to house 520 prisoners, and now holds more than 1,200). But my God, the acoustics for bagpipes in that central hall are fantastic, as was the very loud, and touching, response to my mix of marches, reels, jigs and, by popular demand, Amazing Grace.’
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New European Magazine, 14th May 2025.
Lord John Dyson, Former Justice of the Supreme Court and Master of the Rolls
‘I visited the prison earlier this year to witness one of the weekly workshops of Music in the Ville. About 6 inmates participated. One of them brought his guitar along. Sadly, it had been trapped in a door and was seriously damaged. The result was that he was in a frighteningly agitated state. It was extraordinary to see the skill with which Emma and her colleagues calmed him down. I was introduced as an observer and not as a former judge. For me, the culmination of the afternoon was a rap. The men were organised in a line and I was at the end of the line. When the last one had finished, Emma turned to me and said ‘John’. I had no notice that this might happen and had never performed a rap before. ….’John is my name, music is my game…’ and then I fell into a heap of confusion amid applause. I was inspired by the quality and brilliance of the work of Emma and her colleagues.’
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Speech made at a fundraising event, 2025.
Conrad Bruce, former participant of Music in the Ville
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'Its all about rehabilitation and reform...if you're not going to do that, all you gonna do is penalize people and put them in a bad place with bad people... and then when they come out they're just going to perpetuate the same negative cycles.
Music in the Ville should be like, not just in the Ville like in every other prison. Every other prison.'
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Music in the Ville short documentary, 2025.
Caroline Heslop, Former CEO and Artistic Director NW Live Arts
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'I am so pleased to be able to support Music in the Ville. Coming to their Christmas concert was one of the most uplifting experiences I have had. It was so inspiring to hear intelligent singers, poets and rappers performing with such energy, performance skill and talent alongside a violinist (a prison inmate) playing the Bach Double violin concerto.
What impressed me so much was the artistry and very high standard of work that Emma and her team of creative musicians are doing in Pentonville as well as the high standard of their teaching and commitment to really empowering the people they work with.
All this was on display in beautifully presented collaborations between course tutors and the prisoners working with them. It was evident that the prison inmates participating were really engaged in the creative work they were doing and that it was empowering them in a very good way. I shall continue to support Music in the Ville in any way I can.'
Luke Oxlade​, Official Prison Visitor HMP Pentonville
January 2026
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'The experience of the music is quite simply uplifting. One is unlocking doors, possibly slightly oppressed by the mood, the smell, the weight of the concerns of the prisoners and the prison staff. Suddenly the place is flooded with rapturous sound. The sort of experience one might more commonly expect in the nave of a cathedral is more powerfully delivered, perhaps for its sheer unexpectedness (although there is an architectural similarity), in HMP Pentonville.
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It is as abrupt and sudden a transformation of mood, tone and tenor, in this case from troubled mundane routine to something akin to thespiritual, as I can remember experiencing.
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I’d be very surprised if many, most even, of the prisoners are not to varying degrees similarly affected. The whole mood is altered and it is no surprise that the whole mood seems elevated.
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It’s amazing how music is plainly untouched by human sadness and not only still functions as well as it ever might, but in the apparently unpropitious surroundings of a prison, surpasses, transcends even, the humdrum, the troubled, the down hearted and elevates all equally to a higher almost Godlike level. The effect is magical, or perhaps miraculous is a better word.'