The Michael O’Neal Singers have announced the Spring Project, a $60,000 outreach initiative bringing professional choral music into prisons, senior living communities, and hospice care facilities.

Artistic Director Michael O’Neal will work directly with a men’s prison chorus, developing repertoire and rehearsing alongside incarcerated singers. The ensemble will also present live performances in correctional facilities and distribute professionally filmed concert videos to senior living, memory care, and hospice communities.

The initiative is partnered with Arts Capacity, an organization that facilitates arts programming in correctional facilities. The project follows a pilot program in which The Michael O’Neal Singers shared recordings of Mozart’s “Requiem” with inmates at a Kansas prison through personal tablets and communal screens.

O’Neal studied under famed conductor Robert Shaw, who believed choral singing could restore humanity in environments where it had been diminished.

“Robert Shaw never treated prison music as charity,” said Holly Mulcahy, Executive Director of The Michael O’Neal Singers, per an official press release. “He treated it as essential work. This project exists because that idea still matters.”

“This isn’t about novelty,” O’Neal added. “It’s about responsibility. If you believe music changes lives, you don’t limit it to people who can buy tickets.”

The Spring Project positions the ensemble as both a performing organization and an active participant in arts-based healing and rehabilitation. The professionally produced concert recordings ensure that audiences unable to attend live performances can still access high-quality musical experiences.

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