A lot of things aren’t allowed through the doors of Wisconsin’s prisons.
Cell phones are banned and even underwire from a bra is considered a possible weapon.
But recently, a group of musicians was allowed to venture inside the Oshkosh Correctional Institution with speakers, a piano, violin and cello in tow.
On this particular afternoon in the prison’s gymnasium, pianist Eric Genuis led a two-hour performance that included his original compositions. He was joined by a violinist Eva Dove, cellist Elliot Yang and vocalist Tiffany Ho.
Acoustically, the gym isn’t ideal. It has squeaky floors and a high, echoey ceiling.
Musicians with the performance series “Concerts for Hope” set up their instruments and go through a sound check before performing for an audience of incarcerated men at Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Correctional Institution on Oct. 8, 2024. Angela Major/WPR
And, as he set up before the performance, Genuis acknowledged that the bright yellow walls and harsh fluorescent lights aren’t great to look at either.
“There’s nothing inspirationally beautiful about any of the prisons, right?” Genuis said. “When you remove beauty from a person’s life, you remove part of their humanity.”
The classical musician lives near Louisville, Kentucky but he travels frequently for performances that he calls “Concerts for Hope.” He often chooses venues he considers to be hopeless. That includes hospitals, rehab facilities and prisons.
“I’ve played over 1,000 shows in prisons,” Genuis said as he introduced himself to an audience of seated men, all clad in green prison-issued uniforms. “And as long as they keep letting me out, I keep going back in.”
Eric Genuis speaks to men incarcerated at Oshkosh Correctional Institution during a music performance Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Oshkosh, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
More than 2,000 men are incarcerated at Oshkosh Correctional. Genuis gave two concerts at the medium security lock-up. There was only space for 100 people to view each performance, the prison’s Warden Brian Cahak said.
After about 500 inmates signed up to see Genuis, seats were made available on a first-come-first-serve basis. Those who didn’t get spots will be able to view a recording later, Cahak said.
“It’s something different to offer the population here that we don’t normally ever get to see,” Cahak said. “We’re hoping that it gives them a little more motivation to stay on their track of pro-social activities and behaviors.”
For Jonathan Tease, who’s incarcerated at Oshkosh, the performance felt like an awakening.
“There’s a certain, I think, numbness that you feel being in here,” he said after the concert. “The music brought all the emotions that you could possibly feel forward, and it was just amazing.”
Men incarcerated at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution listen to a musical performance by Eric Genuis and other musicians Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Oshkosh, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Genuis sells CDs and accepts donations. His performance at Oshkosh came at no cost to Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections, Cahak said. Prison officials agreed to let Genuis perform there after the musician reached out to them.
Sometimes, Genuis gets pushback when people hear he performs in prisons.
“‘Why would you go play for them,’ you know?” Genuis said. “‘Why would you go and play for the guy that robbed my parents, that killed my mother?’ I get that all the time. A lot of people have been hurt by criminal behavior.”
Genuis said his concerts aren’t about excusing those actions.
“All I’m saying is that how we treat those who are least in our society says something about our society,” Genuis said.
Violinist Eva Dove performs at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Oshkosh, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Being in the audience for a performance at Oshkosh was a rare experience for Dequelvin Douglas.
“The instruments, the way they resonate through you, it’s meant to be experienced in a certain type of way,” he said. “And I believe that that’s live.”
The 45-year-old is serving a life sentence for homicide, and he’s been incarcerated since the ‘90s.
Dequelvin Douglas, who is incarcerated at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution, listens to Eric Genuis perform music Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Oshkosh, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Douglas’ favorite song from Genuis’ concert at Oshkosh was an instrumental number. It’s a piece that Genuis released in 2021, the year his son, Gabriel, died by suicide.
“I was very close to my son,” Genuis said. “My son had Asperger’s, and he suffered even as a child. So, I always felt the need to be close to him, to protect him. But he was always in this emotional pain.”
Vocalist Tiffany Ho, left, performs with violinist Eva Dove, right, at “Concerts for Hope” at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Oshkosh, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
As Genuis told the audience at Oshkosh, the piece combines dueling strains of cello and violin, and it’s inspired partly by the guilt he struggles to overcome as a father.
“You’re going to hear these themes bounce back and forth, sometimes intense, sometimes gentle, sometimes on the cello, sometimes on the violin,” Genuis told the audience. “But the magic is when they are played together.”
The name of that song is “Redemption.”
Eric Genuis’ group performs at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Oshkosh, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
