The notes of Bach's "French Suite No. 5" floated up to the skylights, the pure sound filling the tiny room.

Sitting at her black Steinway, world-class pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who has topped the Billboard classical chart, played to a unique audience: about 40 inmates of the Maryland Correctional Institution - Women, which sits in Jessup on the western edge of Anne Arundel County.

For people who've made mistakes in life, been dealt a bad hand or more likely both, Friday morning's performance was a moment, however brief, of grace, beauty and even escape. It was hard to remember we were behind razor-wire...