"So I thought, well, what kinds of sounds could I find in this environment? Sure enough, there were all kinds of sounds. Slamming cell doors, electronic locks of the doors that the guards would operate from the control room. Their handcuffs and shackles. These beep-beep-beep sounds of various alarm systems, metal detectors, the sounds of the guards' radios, the sounds of the kids themselves."

To a composer's ears, they were percussion and melody.

So during his visits, Bimstein started taking along a tape recorder and microphone. He recorded the kids' voices, their stories, their experience.

"I don't write a script for them. I do create a script out of what they actually said, after the fact. I just kind of ask them questions."

The final product is a collaborative performance with a CD (which provides the kids' voices and the various "percussion") and three live performers on oboe, bass and guitar. Then, Bimstein's group, blue haiku, will have a notated score with certain key phrases and percussion sounds as cues.

While Bimstein hopes that the piece can provoke introspection and conversation for those in a similar situation, he said that it was written for a general audience. "I really like things that give us the opportunity to explore diversity, to understand other people's lives and situations and so I hope this piece does some of that. I hope it gives the listener a greater understanding of other people's lives."

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If you go . . .

What: "Lockdown," blue haiku

Where: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

How much: $12 and $15

Phone: 355-2787 or 971-0152

Web: www.arttix.org

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E-mail: rcline@desnews.com