NEW YORK — Excerpts from Joseph Wilson’s opera “9131: A Sing Sing Story” were performed at the Weill Music Room at Carnegie Hall in New York City on June 9, 2023. The performance marked a rare public presentation of a work composed by an incarcerated individual serving a 25-to-life sentence for murder in New York.

Wilson, who was sent to prison in 2005, composed the opera titled “9131,” a reference to the number of days in a 25-year prison sentence. The work features a protagonist seeking release from a parole board while his wife is unfaithful. Wilson collaborated with incarcerated spoken word artist Zontiell Gordon on the libretto and co-wrote parts of the music with guitarist Xiao Bao He. He hand-wrote the full score rather than using a computer.

The aria “Secrets” from the opera was sung by soprano Kimberli Render at the 2023 showcase. Parts of “9131” were also published online by Decoda, a Carnegie Hall-affiliated ensemble of classical musicians. Brad Balliett, a bassoon player with Decoda, mentored Wilson through the Musicambia program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and helped fundraise to stage the work in 2023. “His work has traces of Beethoven and Bach, but also a lot of crazy vocal writing that reminds me of more modern composers like Paul Hindemith,” Balliett said.

Wilson first encountered opera in 2015 by listening to New York City’s classical station WQXR using a paper clip antenna. He began studying opera after meeting mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato during her visits to Sing Sing and participated in music programs there, including Musicambia and Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections. Wilson stated that a teacher gave him a music theory book by Igor Stravinsky, which influenced his interest in the ballet “The Rite of Spring.” He added, “I also learned that contemporary Hollywood movie scores are the progeny of Stravinsky. As a movie lover, these elements had already been supplanted in my subconscious mind.”

Wilson noted that he made the opera’s protagonist White, whereas he is Black, to avoid audience clichés regarding Black or poor characters. “A large portion of opera lovers are White… and affluent. I wanted to create sympathy around mirror neurons,” he said. Reflecting on his circumstances, Wilson added, “I have produced loads of music that I cannot hear [and] an opera that I have not seen. For once, I want to witness it…It gives me a goal and a little hope.”

Why It Matters

The performance at Carnegie Hall—a venue that presents about 250 performances each season and is located in Midtown Manhattan—highlights an unusual intersection of the criminal justice system and classical music. Wilson’s work emerged from within Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where arts programs like Musicambia and Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections have enabled incarcerated individuals to engage in creative expression. The June 2023 event represented not only artistic achievement but also a rare platform for a composer who remains imprisoned and has never seen his opera staged in full.