Enarmonia Philharmonic: Instrument teaching and ensemble music practice for blind and low-vision people

Carried out under the 3rd edition of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s PARTIS – Artistic Practices for Social Inclusion – programme, the Enarmonia Philharmonic project aims to guarantee access to learning and joint musical practice for blind and low-vision students and to promote fraternisation between participants and between them and the public. The goal is to normalize visually impaired people and their skills and artistic potential. More than 40 visually impaired children, young people and adults enjoyed weekly lessons in wind and percussion instruments, musical training, Braille musicography, musical training, memorisation, and ensemble rehearsals in the context of a philharmonic band, as well as concerts and other artistic activities with different musical groups.

Alongside artistic improvement, the teams sought to improve social, emotional and cognitive skills – reducing the stigma resulting from the prolonged restriction of their access to musical practice, a sense of equal opportunities and social integration, a spirit of ownership and belonging to an artistic movement, memorisation skills, concentration, stimulating commitment and motivation, confidence, the ability to overcome and cope with frustration. In addition, the aim was to promote family interaction and artistic sharing between people with and without vision problems, and therefore, a spirit of mutual help and family cohesion, as well as acceptance of others and pro-social understanding.

Finally, the Enarmonia Philharmonic’s public concerts aimed to raise society’s awareness of the naturalisation of blind people, to encourage the minimisation of prejudices and complacency before impaired people, and to spread admiration and understanding of the importance and commitment of everyone to social equity. Members of the artistic, social and technological teams have shared the project results in training sessions to empower the teaching community at conservatoires and music academies.