Over the last four years, the Galp Foundation has promoted the creation and development of Som Sim Zero, an artistic project geared to social inclusion that brings together the Island of São Miguel Deaf Association and the Rabo de Peixe School of Music under the management of the artistic group Ondamarela. The initiative explores the relationship between sound and space as experienced by people living in a world of silence, in a project developed by the Tremor Festival in the Azores, where Som Sim Zero have played concerts and participated in artistic residencies.
Last year, the Azorean orchestra set off from the island, a new experience for most of the participants, taking their dreams, instruments and expectations with them, to headline at Rock in Rio Lisbon with a highly energetic, exciting show. An event that served as a rallying cry for a wave of mobilisation around social inclusion, encouraging each and every one of us to appreciate diversity for its values and wealth, overcoming stigmas while creating a more humane society. The 22-strong group of performers that took to the stage showed that “No man is an island” and that music has the power to defuse differences and to unite people around this art of universal language.