Choir leader helps inmates find their voices

EDMONTON, AB — She always loved to sing, but would only mumble the words in public. Too many people, including her mother, told her she had a terrible voice. Ironically, it is while being incarcerated at the Edmonton Institution for Women that Rochelle Lalonde finally found someone to get her in tune, as a member of the New Beginnings choir, perhaps the only prison choir in Canada, under the direction of Eva Bostrand.

Woman of Vision

“Now I’m doing solos in front of a camera,” laughs the inmate, referring to our Global News camera at the choir’s fall concert. “That’s the miracle (Eva) works. She shows you that you really can do it.”

Eva Bostrand is an exceptional voice coach and choir leader, according to her many students. She recognizes how, in the prison environment in particular, it takes a lot of courage for people like Rochelle to participate in an activity considered “uncool,” exposing themselves to potential ridicule by performing in front of fellow inmates. But these choir members say Eva has helped them to overcome their fears and given them a sense of belonging and respect as individuals, regardless of their pasts.

Eva also believes it teaches them rules, for as the conductor, she is also the dictator. They learn trust in their fellow choir members. It builds selfesteem and is therapeutic.