Our mission

Through our outreach program in adolescent detention facilities, Sarasa Ensemble is dedicated to bridging cultural, aesthetic, and economic barriers and providing incarcerated teenagers with opportunities for growth, self-expression, and enrichment through music. Since the inception of the program, Sarasa has observed first-hand the extraordinary empowerment music offers. Sarasa meets disproportionately Black and Latino teens from disadvantaged homes, many of whom have high recidivism rates. The amazing reality is that these kids appreciate and understand when music comes straight from the heart. An open dialogue through music gives each teen the opportunity to learn to trust one another and co-create something special. Our outreach programs encourage community-building and creative expression, and offer a glimpse of possibility and fulfillment beyond drugs and gang violence.

In recognition of our work with the Department of Youth Services, Sarasa was unanimously voted to receive the Commissioner’s Community Partner Award in 2018. Sarasa has been featured on WHRB’s The Artery for their work in the DYS facilities, and in 2022 received an “Engagement Award” from Early Music America in recognition of our outreach programming at the Epiphany School in Dorchester, MA.

The outreach experience

In partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, Sarasa has pioneered a unique outreach program that provides incarcerated youth with the opportunity to build self-belief and community through an exchange of their own creative perspectives, and by making music together.

Each musician who performs with Sarasa participates in a presentation, playing works from the program of the given week’s concert-set they have been rehearsing. During these visits, musicians and teens collaborate within a free, non-judgmental atmosphere. Sarasa encourages interaction with the resident teens, communicating about the instruments and the music. The teens reciprocate with presentations of their own music, and perform in collaboration with Sarasa during the sessions. The effectiveness of these presentations is not one-dimensional - Sarasa musicians derive much inspiration and pleasure from their work with the teens. 

Sarasa Outreach Programming includes several types of engagement. In our one-hour Presentations, Sarasa performs classical pieces, solicits input from the teens through casual conversation, and invites them to share their own songs, raps, or ideas. The teens and musicians intuitively exchange and find creativity together; favorite past examples include beatbox accompaniment to Vivaldi, modern dance to Haydn, and foot-stomping to Mozart.

Residencies include 3 visits of 2 hours each over one week. Sarasa brings two vocalists, a cellist, and a keyboardist to the facilities, who perform classical and musical theater pieces for the first 1/2 hour. After introductions and establishing some trust, everyone engages in group singing. Other outlets for communication and collaboration are rhythmic exercises with hand drums, and work on compositions that intertwine the kids’ rap, poetry, and everything else in between. An audio recording/performance is made of these on the last day of the residency.

Our partners

Much of Sarasa’s outreach work has been in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) and the youth lock-up facilities it runs. Sarasa also works with schools serving disadvantaged youth. These partners include:

• Butler Center (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Westborough, MA

• Commonwealth Secure Detention (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Dorchester, MA

• Elliot Boys Detention (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Dorchester, MA

• Epiphany School (school for economically disadvantaged families) | Dorchester, MA

• Kennedy School, (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Middleton, MA

• Metro Pretrial Detention (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Dorchester, MA

• Metro Treatment Unit (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Dorchester, MA

• North East Detention (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Middleton, MA

• Pelletier Assessment Program (lock up facility for teenage girls) | Westborough, MA

• Sharp Transition Unit, (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Westborough, MA

• Spectrum Girls Program (lock up facility for teenage girls) | Westborough, MA

• Suffolk County Detention (lock up facility for teenage boys) | Dorchester, MA

• Worcester Secure Treatment (lock up facility for teens) in Westborough, MA

Our history

Few chamber music ensembles find their inspiration from giving a concert before inmates at a maximum security prison, but Sarasa likes to tread the path less chosen. "I was naive," said cellist and Sarasa Ensemble founder, Timothy Merton.  "A friend, who was volunteering at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, suggested I give a concert for 40 guys who were in a music program there... I brought my cello to a little room with a funky upright piano. It was quite the scene." He and his pianist played some Martinu and Franck, not knowing what to expect from guys who preferred hip hop or blues. Their response surprised him. Intense reaction! "The guys were just glued. Afterwards, they wanted to know everything about us and the music," Merton said. "Their openness to something of beauty that spoke to a more profound place within them meant a lot."

The two concerts were so personally rewarding that Merton decided he wanted to give more concerts to those who ordinarily had little access to classical music, such as those in other adult prisons, correctional facilities for teenagers, homes for the elderly, mental hospitals and institutions for the disabled. Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble was born.

Sarasa has given over 250 presentations and residencies at teenage correctional facilities in Massachusetts in the past 17 years. Their extensive and unfailing Outreach Program has been widely acknowledged, as well as awarded recognition of Outstanding Merit and Contribution by Early Music America.