First performed in February 2022 with a second performance on 16 October 2022, The Sun Does Shine is a new musical work by Harvey Brough and Justin Butcher inspired by the autobiography of an innocent man who spent 30 years on death row. At the age of 28 Anthony Ray Hinton was wrongly convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death by an Alabama court. He spent the next three decades yards away from 'Yellow Mama' - the electric chair - fighting to prove his innocence, before finally being released in 2015. His story confronts racism and the systemic injustices that keep prisoners locked up for years, while also recognising the strength of the human spirit and making a compelling case for the possibility of redemption. It's a message that has urgent relevance for us in the UK. You can read more about the piece and about Ray's story on our website.

Tne Arts Council have funded Vox to make a documentary film about the project - to be launched in early 2023. It explores how a community choir can tackle such a difficult subject and convey through words and music a message that has authenticity and relevance for a UK audience. To deepen our own understanding, our partners in this project, the Prison Reform Trust, helped us link up with a number of prisoners serving life, indefinite or long sentences with whom some choir members exchanged letters.

Although this correspondence ensured that the project was influenced by the real experiences of UK prisoners, our ambition was always to get the story directly into prisons. This summer, the Arts Council agreed to help us develop a series of podcasts, based on the music but including commentary from prisoners themselves and many others. In November, we will begin to design the podcasts and plan to broadcast the series, towards the end of 2023, to prisons across the UK via National Prison Radio.

To do this well we need more funding. So, if you are inspired by this project, please make make a contribution. Any donation, small or large, will be a huge help. We want everyone to enjoy the concert itself, but we also want this amazing work to have a much wider reach and impact. With your help we are sure it will.

The second performance of The Sun Does Shine will take place on Sunday 16 October 2022 at 7.30pm at St Luke's in Holloway. You can buy tickets here.