inTUNE: Stories of Connection through Music

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John Edward Keough runs Hollywoot Film Group. Lew Evangelidis is the Sheriff of Worcester County, and John spent years in custody in that system. Melissa had them both on separately, and both times she came away struck by the depth of what they knew and how much music had shaped them, so she put them in a room together and got out of the way.

What follows is an hour on Hank Williams and A Tribe Called Quest, Patsy Cline and Nirvana, what happened to radio, and what happened to live music in Worcester. Neither of them performs agreement. They just keep arriving at the same place. As Lew puts it near the end, they love music for a higher purpose than entertainment — they listen because it spiritually renews them.

We don't get to corrections here. That's the next one.

In this episode

• John's mother, who sang constantly — and sang to him on the phone as she was dying
• Lew's father, from an Albanian immigrant family, on why country music was "our people's music"
• The death of regional rock radio: WBCN, WAAF, and what's left of it
• Live music in Worcester, in the past and today
• A midnight garage show in Nashville
• Songkick, Bonnaroo, and finding grassroots music now
• Why both of them, independently, listen for the writing first

John's five songs for Lew

1. "Keep the Wolves Away" — Uncle Lucius
2. "Mad World" — Tears for Fears
3. "Kyrie" — Mr. Mister
4. "Piece of Me" — Lady Wray
5. "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" — A Tribe Called Quest

Lew's list is coming, and we'll get to both next time — along with the part we left out: education, and what music does inside a house of correction.

Also mentioned
Nat Needle, a local musician who plays at Cafe Neo in Worcester. Highly recommended by John. 

Music Featured

• “Wish I May” — OpporTUNEity Music, John Wayne Cormier Jr, Travis H., Marc Recor
• Intro and outro music — written and produced by opporTUNEity students

Submit questions or topics at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune
 

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

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In this episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with Travis, a member of opporTUNEity's very first cohort at the Worcester County House of Correction, for a conversation about addiction, fatherhood, and the music that kept calling him back to himself.

Travis grew up with a father who sang "Summertime" to him every night before bed, and played music for him constantly, from jazz and classical to James Taylor. Music was the connection between them, and later, it became the measure of whether Travis was okay. When addiction took hold, the singing stopped. It came back in a jail cell, where singing, reading, and exercise were the three things he had left. He walked into a songwriting class expecting to go once and never return, and instead found something he didn't know he needed: people being people together.

In this conversation, Travis traces the whole arc: the perfectionism that made a blank page feel impossible, the peers who showed him how to write imperfectly, the showcase performance his mother witnessed inside the facility, and the wedding where he finally danced again. Now he's a father himself, singing "Sweet Baby James" to his son Nico the way his dad once sang to him.

In The Pulse, Dr. Martiros shares three strategies for working with perfectionism in music education settings, drawn directly from Travis's experience.

Music Featured

• “Wish I May” — Worcester County House of Corrections (2021)
• "Tears of a Clown" — Worcester County House of Corrections (2021)
  
  

Intro and outro music written and produced by opporTUNEity students.

Submit questions or topics at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune
 

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.
 

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with Maggie Wheeler — actress, singer-songwriter, and community choir director — for a conversation about music as a lifelong practice of finding your voice, building community, and showing up for people who need it most.

Maggie is known to millions as Janice from Friends, but for decades she's been quietly doing something else entirely: gathering people together to sing. What started as a monthly community sing at a Los Angeles gallery grew into the Golden Bridge Community Choir, which she led for 17 years. In this conversation, she traces the thread — from a folk music summer camp at age seven, to a seven-day vocal workshop that changed her relationship to music, to the moment she walked into a maximum-security prison in Iowa and heard a room full of incarcerated men singing a song she'd written.

It's a conversation about the courage it takes to claim your own voice — and what happens when you use it to build a fire that other people can gather around.

Music Featured

• "How Shall We Come Together" — Maggie Wheeler
• "Until We Meet Again" — Maggie Wheeler

Learn about the Golden Bridge Community Choir and stream Maggie's music at goldenbridgechoir.com and  maggiewheeler.bandcamp.com.

Learn more at maggiewheeler.net 

Intro and outro music written and produced by opporTUNEity students.
Submit questions or topics at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune
Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with John Wayne Cormier Jr., a Worcester County House of Correction alumnus and opporTUNEity participant, for an honest conversation about gang life, addiction, incarceration, and the music program that changed the direction of his life.

John Wayne shares a story that starts early — a rough household, a move that pulled him away from his first real community, and a gang affiliation by age 12. What follows is a decade and a half of homelessness, addiction, and incarceration. But it's also a story about the moments music showed up: a fifth grade talent show where someone told him he had something, and years later, a jail classroom where he walked in and felt, for the first time in a long time, like he was with his people.

Since his release in 2020, John Wayne has returned to opporTUNEity as a teaching artist and continues working in recovery advocacy.

Music Featured

• "April (Why'd You Take So Long)" — John Wayne Cormier Jr., Tajawn Campbell, Charlie Hartwell; OpporTUNEity Records
• "Sabrina's Song" — John Wayne Cormier Jr., Alex Calabrese, Ethan Leff, Joe Dunn
• "Wish I May" — OpporTUNEity Songwriting Class (2021)

Intro and outro music written and produced by opporTUNEity students.

Get in Touch Submit questions or topics at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz. 

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with Dr. Mary Cohen, Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa and co-leader of IMAJIN, for a wide-ranging conversation about what music makes possible when it's built on genuine relationship.

Mary's signature project was the Oakdale Community Choir, which she led from 2009 to 2020,  bringing together nearly 100 incarcerated and non-incarcerated singers who collectively wrote 150 original songs. When COVID halted the choir and the Iowa Department of Corrections chose not to restart it, Mary created the Inside/Outside Collaborative Songwriting Project, pairing incarcerated and non-incarcerated musicians to build relationships through original songwriting entirely outside the prison system's permission structure.

Key Themes

• Music as a tool for building common humanity across the inside/outside divide
• What it means to grieve a program and keep going anyway
• Collaborative songwriting when physical access is denied
• Generative justice as a framework for responding to harm with care

The Pulse: Practical Strategies for Building Engagement Programs Rooted in Care, Reciprocity, and Community

1. Design for relationship, not just participation
2. Center reciprocity from the start
3. Know the system you're working inside
4. Make creative authorship central
5. Grieve what ends — then build what's next
6. Find your Jim

Music Featured

• "May the Stars Remember Your Name" — written by Kenneth Bailey
• "Remember Be Love" — written by Michael Blackwell and Rebecca Swanson
• "Four Times Bonita" — written by Efrain Umaña
• "10 Years (In Memory of Mike)" — written by JD Mack and Matt Kearney
• "How Shall We Come Together" — written by Maggie Wheeler, performed with the Oakdale Community Choir

Intro and outro music written and produced by opporTUNEity students.

Find Dr. Mary Cohen & Her Work

• Remember Be Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdssrgUwG3c&t=11s
• Oakdale Community Choir: https://oakdalechoir.lib.uiowa.edu/
• Songs of Generative Justice: https://songsofgenerativejustice.bandcamp.com/
• IMAJIN Caring Communities: https://www.imajincaringcommunities.com/
• Music Making in U.S. Prisons: https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/M/Music-Making-in-U.S.-Prisons

Maggie Wheeler:

• Maggie's Bandcamp: https://maggiewheeler.bandcamp.com/
• Maggie's Choir: https://www.goldenbridgechoir.com

Correction: Correction: Over its 11 years, the Oakdale Community Choir included a total of 300 members—164 inside (incarcerated) singers and 136 outside (non-incarcerated) singers. At its peak, approximately 80 singers performed together at one time.

Get in Touch https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz. https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with John Edward Keough — poet, essayist, and founder of Hollywoot Film Group — for an honest conversation about creativity, incarceration, and what it takes to build a life from scratch.

John's story begins at age six, when he was placed into DYS custody for truancy while homeless with his mother and siblings at South Station in Boston. Over the next three decades, he moved in and out of foster care, DYS, and DOC custody — including nearly ten months in solitary confinement. It was there, trading food for postage stamps, that he began submitting poetry to literary journals at a rate of 40 to 50 submissions a month. A letter from an Ohio poetry editor changed everything.

Six years out, John holds a degree from Clark University, runs a profitable independent film company in Worcester, and participates in restorative justice. Poetry and music — tools he carried through every cell he ever occupied — are still at the center of everything he does.

Episode Summary A portrait of creativity as survival, and what happens when the system fails a child but art does not.

Key Themes

• Poetry and music as lifelines inside correctional settings
• The long reach of early childhood trauma and systemic failure
• The role of one attentive adult in changing a trajectory
• Restorative justice as a choice, not a requirement
• Building a creative life and business with a record
• Partnership versus saviorhood in youth-facing work

The Pulse

Topic: What John's story offers educators working with system-involved youth

Dr. Martiros draws on John's experience to offer five grounding reminders for educators, teaching artists, and advocates:

1. Meet the student before you meet their paperwork
2. Access is an act of advocacy — you don't have to fix the system to change someone's experience of it
3. Creativity is not a reward for good behavior — it is an essential, not an extra
4. Understand what your student is walking back into — the sentence doesn't end at the gate
5. Partner, don't save — young people know the difference

Music & Words Featured

"Shot Full of Holes" — written and performed by John Edward Keough

"Walking After Midnight" — written by Don Hecht and Alan Block, originally performed by Patsy Cline, sung by John Edward Keough

Intro and outro music written and produced by opporTUNEity students.

Find John Edward Keough 

Substack (Writing Stuff Down): johnedwardkeough.substack.com

Hollywoot Film Group: hollywootfilmgroup.com

Get in Touch Submit questions or topics for future episodes at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of inTUNE, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with Paul Boisvert, a former student and long-time teaching artist with opporTUNEity, for a candid conversation about music education, identity, and what happens when classroom learning meets real-world engagement inside a correctional facility.

Paul shares a journey that began with teaching himself Nirvana songs at 13, wound through music therapy and jazz performance, and included an unexpected personal connection to incarceration. As one of opporTUNEity's first student interns in 2019, he helped build the program from the ground up, eventually becoming a lead teaching artist who overhauled the curriculum and facilitated hundreds of sessions over seven years.

He reflects on creating a classroom where incarcerated individuals feel treated as humans — where autonomy, humor, and creative expression replace the restrictions of daily life inside. From asking someone to sing their own words aloud, to watching families cry at end-of-semester showcases, Paul captures the deeply human pursuit at the heart of the work — and speaks honestly about what it gave him in return.

Now pursuing a master's in music theory at UNC Greensboro with plans for a PhD, Paul looks back on seven years of gratitude, growth, and music as a verb.

Episode Summary A compelling inside look at what it means to teach music in a correctional setting — and how that work transforms not just participants, but the educators who show up for them.

Key Themes

• Music as a verb: creation over performance
• The formation of a teaching artist
• Dignity, autonomy, and humanity in correctional education
• Empathy as a skill developed through community engagement
• The bi-directional impact of service learning
• Transitioning from intern to leader
• The value of niche experience in building a music career
• Gratitude as a lasting legacy of the work

The Pulse Topic: What community engagement offers music students that classrooms cannot

Paul's trajectory — from self-taught guitarist to teaching artist to graduate scholar — is a case study in what happens when students are given real responsibility in real spaces. He didn't just observe the program; he helped build it, adapt it, and lead it. That formation doesn't happen in a practice room.

The modern music career demands flexibility, interpersonal fluency, and the ability to work across communities. Programs like opporTUNEity don't distract from that preparation — they accelerate it.

Music Featured All music was written, performed, or produced by opporTUNEity students.

"Tears of a Clown" — December 2019 Songwriting Class; Carl, Travis, D'Angelo, Darrell, Angel, Jason, Kevin, John Wayne, Chris; Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas, Paul Boisvert

"Changing My Ways" — Spring 2023; Marc Recor; Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas, Paul Boisvert, John Wayne Cormier; Vijay Gupta on Violin

"Tattoos" — December 2021; CJ & Mosh; Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas, Paul Boisvert, Landon Chesney

"Wish I May" — OpporTUNEity Songwriting Class (2021)

Get in Touch

Submit questions or topics for future episodes at
 https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

IIn this episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with Marc Recor, a Worcester County House of Correction alumnus and opporTUNEity participant, for a conversation about transformation, resilience, and the power of music during incarceration.

Marc shares his lifelong connection to music — from being the family DJ at age seven to teaching himself guitar at 18 and rediscovering his passion inside the Worcester County Jail. Through opporTUNEity's songwriting program, he wrote and performed original songs including "Turtle Suit" and "On My Way," describing how the program gave him "freedom of mind" in a restrictive environment and helped him reclaim control over his own growth and identity.

Marc reflects on what it means to "do your time" rather than let time do you — using the metaphor of being pulled out of "the river of life" and placed on the banks, where incarceration became an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and change direction. He discusses the role music played in his mental health, the camaraderie it built, and how songwriting gave him a sense of accomplishment that continues to shape his life today.

Now reunited with his family, attending AA meetings, and writing and playing music daily, Marc offers advice to those currently incarcerated: take the step, don't be scared, and take advantage of programs that help you grow — because you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Episode Summary A firsthand account of how music, accountability, and creative expression can transform incarceration into a stepping stone toward meaningful change.

Key Themes

• Music as mental health and emotional processing
• "Doing your time" versus letting time do you
• Songwriting as identity reclamation and accomplishment
• Breaking stereotypes about incarcerated individuals
• The role of dignity-centered programming in reducing recidivism

The Pulse Topic: Building credible teaching teams in correctional spaces

In correctional settings, what often goes missing is the opportunity to reflect, create, and be heard without judgment. Songwriting changes that — but only when the space is held by people who show up prepared and grounded.

Marc described how opporTUNEity's teachers didn't talk at or down to participants. They read the room, spoke their language, and showed up with mutual respect. When someone writes a song inside, they're organizing memory, naming emotion, and asserting identity in a system designed to reduce people to numbers.

Music Featured

All music was written, performed, or produced by opporTUNEity students.

"Nowhere Right Now" — Lyrics by J. Commey, S. Oppong, T. Boutwell-Campbell, Vocals recorded by M. Recor and J.W. Cormier produced by OpporTUNEity Records LLC. 

“5-Minute Beat (Challenge)” — Zae. Main Jail Beatmaking & Production (Spring 2025); Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas and Dan DeCristofaro

"Turtle Suit" — Lyrics by Marc Recor, Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas, Paul Boisvert

"On the Bone" —Lyrics by Marc Recor, Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas, Paul Boisvert

"Changing My Ways" —Lyrics by Marc Recor, Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas, Paul Boisvert

“Wish I May” — WCHA Worcester County Housing Authority (2021)

Get in Touch

Submit questions or topics for future episodes at
 https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music, Dr. Melissa Martiros sits down with Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis for a wide-ranging conversation about music, rehabilitation, leadership, and humanity inside the correctional system. Sheriff Evangelidis reflects on his lifelong relationship with music, his 15-year tenure as sheriff, and his belief that incarceration—when done with dignity, accountability, and opportunity—can be a powerful catalyst for change.

From early memories of growing up surrounded by music, to discovering jazz, classical, folk, hip hop, and country throughout different stages of life, Evangelidis shares how music has remained a grounding and restorative force alongside a demanding career in law enforcement. He speaks candidly about his path from Wall Street to law school, prosecution, public office, and ultimately to reimagining what the sheriff’s office could be—not just a place of confinement, but a place of rehabilitation.

Throughout the conversation, Evangelidis explains why he believes in treating incarcerated individuals with dignity and respect, investing in mental health and substance abuse services, elevating the quality of the staff, and partnering with educational and creative programs like opporTUNEity. He describes how music programs inside the Worcester County House of Corrections foster camaraderie, emotional expression, and cultural shifts that extend beyond the classroom and into the broader jail environment.

Episode Summary
A deep conversation about leadership, rehabilitation, and the role of music as a humanizing and restorative force inside correctional institutions. Sheriff Evangelidis shares how creative programming, accountability, and dignity-centered policies can reduce recidivism, strengthen community safety, and support meaningful reentry.

Key Themes
• Music as a lifelong source of healing, balance, and spiritual grounding
• Rehabilitation versus punishment in correctional settings
• Leadership without political favoritism or “past practice” constraints
• Treating incarcerated individuals with dignity and respect
• The role of creative and educational programming in reducing recidivism
• Music as a tool for emotional expression, camaraderie, and cultural change
• Why “if the inmate wins, we all win”

The Pulse (Q&A)
Topic: Using music to build community inside correctional institutions

Dr. Martiros shares three practical strategies for educators and musicians interested in teaching or starting music programs inside jails or prisons:

1. Partner with existing institutions
2. Design trauma-informed, flexible lessons
3. Center dignity, not charity
   
   

Music Featured
All music was written, performed, or produced by opporTUNEity students.

“5-Minute Beat (Challenge)” — Zae. Main Jail Beatmaking & Production (Spring 2025); Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas and Dan DeCristofaro

"Gratitude"  — Performed by Teaching Artist Dan DeCristofaro. Collaborative Songwriting at Everyday Miracles Recovery Center

All-Midi Scenic — Dan D. Main Jail Beatmaking & Production (Fall 2025)
Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas and Dan DeCristofaro

“Wish I May” — WCHA Worcester County Housing Authority (2021)

Get in Touch

Submit questions or topics for future episodes at
 https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org

Send us Fan Mail

In our debut episode, Melissa shares the foundational stories that shaped her approach to inclusive music education. Through early teaching challenges, work inside correctional facilities, and years of building opporTUNEity, she explores what inclusion truly means—and how music helps every individual find their voice.

Welcome to the first episode of inTUNE: Stories of Connection Through Music. Melissa explores inclusion in music education as a mindset and a movement, shaped by early teaching experiences and work across community music schools, jails, and reentry programs. A pivotal student encounter led her toward deeper study in pedagogy, special education, and higher education leadership, eventually inspiring the founding of opporTUNEity—an organization using music to connect people across backgrounds and life experiences.

She also shares how object writing and songwriting inside correctional facilities help participants tell their stories, process emotions, and reclaim identity.

Episode Summary
Stories from community studios, correctional settings, and opporTUNEity programs show how inclusive teaching helps students feel seen, valued, and empowered to express themselves.

Key Themes
• Inclusion as accessibility, representation, reciprocity, belonging
• Why labels can be limiting
• Flexible and responsive learning spaces
• Songwriting as emotional processing
• Music as connection and identity
• Practical ways to teach beyond the label

The Pulse (Q&A)
Question: What if a student clearly has a disability, but the parent has not shared the label?
Answer: Use entrance surveys, strengths/challenges lists, flexible options, and simple questions such as “What helps you learn best?”

Music Featured
All music was written, performed, or produced by opporTUNEity students.

“5-Minute Beat (Challenge)” — Zae
Main Jail Beatmaking & Production (Spring 2025)
Teaching Artists: Dan Thomas and Dan DeCristofaro
Notes: Created in under five minutes during a rapid-fire exercise.

“Frenemy” — Derek and Dan
Songwriters Circle, Community Justice & Support Center (2025)
Notes: Created live; Derek had been released two weeks earlier after a 15-year sentence.

“Tattoos” — CJ and Mosh
Main Jail Songwriting Class (Dec 2021)
YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/K0u70i2myo4?si=paBNkn1Nh9CAaqsY

“Wish I May” — WCHA
Worcester County House of Corrections (2021)
YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/I0gW7QHmvDI?si=BhMbeE66ZOkk0LUJ

Get in Touch

Submit questions or topics for future episodes at
 https://opporTUNEitymusic.org/intune

Episode produced and edited by Angela Senicz.

Learn more about our programs, stories, and community at https://opporTUNEitymusic.org