Open Ways

To know your own roots is an essential first step if you are to understand others, be open to the new and be ready to be surprised. Music, considered by many to be a universal language, opens up many possibilities to explore your roots - and those of others.

A small example would be those musical instruments, which belong to a common family but are used to produce such different music in such different ways, expressing the distinct local culture of a region or country.

One of SESC São Paulo`s central aims is to promote contact between people (the public, artists and critics) of varied origins, educational background and with different expectations - and cultural manifestations of many types. Its work in this area has been widely recognised as providing tremendous opportunities for the exchange of experiences, observation, creativity and the realisation of common interests.

For SESC São Paulo, the understanding brought through the direct experience of cultural difference is something which should be encouraged ever more strongly - no matter what creative sphere it involves.

The MPB-BPM Música Popular Brasileira / British Popular Music project, a partnership between SESC São Paulo and the British Council and which brings together Brazilian and British musicians, is an excellent example of such a process.

SESC São Paulo.