Shona Brown creating stir with pupils in prison choir

By Stuart MacDonald

WEST LOTHIAN, UK — A CLASSICAL musician is teaching some of the
country’s toughest convicts to sing after setting up the UK’s first
prison choir.

Shona Brown, 27, is working with inmates at Addiewell prison
in West Lothian to keep them in tune.

The flautist and singer, a finalist in the BBC Young Musician of
the Year, was approached by bosses at the privately-run jail who
wanted to offer singing classes to inmates as part of their
rehabilitation.

Ms Brown plays piano during the weekly 90-minute sessions while
the prisoners sing tunes by Scots rock band Biffy Clyro, country
legend Johnny Cash and the Beatles.

She admitted she was nervous on her first visit there at the
prospect of being in a room alone with a group of
criminals.