A mind's like a parachute

Dave* does not go out much. Money is tight, and after 14 years since his release, his evenings tend to be quiet ones. When a ticket to the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra came up through Pathway, he took it. Not because he was a fan of classical music. Dave is a drummer, self-taught on rock and roll and blues. The symphony was not his world. He went because the ticket was free, and because he figured he should keep an open mind.

"A mind's like a parachute," he says. "It only works when it's open."

Reintegration after a long sentence is a slow process. The practical milestones take years to establish. Housing, employment, routine. Cultural life, the kind most people take for granted, tends to fall much further down the list. Tickets to live performance cost money that most people leaving prison simply do not have. Evenings at the Town Hall have not historically been part of that picture.

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The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra gifted a block of tickets to Pathway, and 20 people made the trip to the Town Hall. Men rebuilding their lives after prison, alongside support staff and visitors. For most of them, it was not the kind of evening they would have arranged for themselves.

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Dave was not sure what to expect, whether the crowd would be unwelcoming, whether he would feel out of place. He went anyway.

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He remembers the pianist most clearly. The man played for 20 minutes without a single sheet of music in front of him. Dave spent part of the evening explaining things to the man beside him. How the conductor is brought in from outside. How no one leaves the stage until the lead violinist goes first. He knew more than he expected to.

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After the performance, some of the CSO musicians came outside and spoke with the group. Creative people. People with full lives in the world. "It pays to build a support network," he says. "They can see your progress. They can see that you're not just out to rip everything off."

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For the CSO, the connection runs both ways. Selena Prior, Head of Community Engagement and Principal Bassoon, said the musicians who had worked with the men inside were glad to see them in the hall. "Those who have been involved in the delivery of the programme light up when they are told that the men are in the house. We all crave a sense of belonging and we hope that this goes some way to creating that feeling."

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Silvan, who coordinated the evening for Pathway, said the response from the group was clear. "The men loved the experience and are definitely keen on future events should this become available."

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Dave is among them. He will go every time, he says, if the chance comes up again.

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*name has been changed.

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