The Michael O’Neal Singers recently partnered with Arts Capacity, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing the arts into prison systems, to perform for incarcerated residents at a Georgia state correctional facility.

The program was built around Arts Capacity’s “listening first” methodology, which foregoes academic framing in favor of allowing residents to engage with choral music on their own terms. The organization ties this approach to reducing recidivism by fostering emotional intelligence and institutional calm.

On May 4, 2026, the ensemble performed two contemporary choral works including Ola Gjeilo’s “Sunrise Mass” and Elaine Hagenberg’s “Illuminare.”

One participant, encountering the Latin text of Gjeilo’s mass without prior familiarity, reflected that “The only word I understood was amen, but I was a fan of all of this.”

Another described Hagenberg’s “Illuminare” as “The voices complement each other. It made me feel like you can make it when you’re down and out. I felt we were eavesdropping into the heavens… This was a soothing balm.”