Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rodrigo Prates. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rodrigo , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

Zuando Som came about by chance. I had already been composing songs before my first child was born. After Vinícius, Lucas and João were born, I focused on their daily lives. In fact, before that, I was invited to promote music sessions with children at a school near where I lived. Only later did I have the idea of ​​giving my work a name. I started at one school and, before I knew it, I was at every school in the city. It was a small city, on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, but even so, there were seven schools. Sometimes, two a day. The song Bruxa, for example, I composed for Halloween and the children really liked it. I have always created what I sing. I like to listen to it, smell the music, taste it. The name Zuando Som comes from the word Zoar, which means to make noise, to shout. In Brazil, “Zoar” means to mess up, to disturb the place, to keep it quiet, to make it tremble. When we play, our goal is to build something or to deconstruct it. Organized, organized play is usually not smart. There is a certain harmony in the chaos of a child. Concerts are like that; I never know how they will end. Often, adults cry and children laugh. Other times, there are declarations of love between families. I always get emotional on stage.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Zuando Som is a music and education project created by Rodrigo Prates, a musician, composer and writer, in 2000 on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Since 2014, in partnership with his wife Paula Cardoso, a psychopedagogue with over twenty years of experience in literacy in São Paulo, Zuando Som has been gaining international recognition, having worked in Lisbon, London and is now established in Miami with a space dedicated exclusively to teaching children to read and write using song lyrics as its main tool. Since its creation, the project has always had its ideological basis in Brazilian literature and song lyrics. With hundreds of performances in addition to workshops for parents and teachers, Zuando Som makes animations, albums and singles with renowned Brazilian artists available on all digital platforms.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

It is not the artist who chooses art, it is art that chooses the artist. No one decides to be an artist, just as no one decides their sexuality. It is something that is born, it is there and no one knows how. I would not know how to choose something else again, because I never had another option. Even if I felt the need to express myself in another format, I would never leave art. We were not made only to stamp papers, or prescribe medicine. Although these professions are even more important than mine, we were not made to do only important services. We were also made for unimportant things. Not everything that is unimportant is useless. Being an artist is valuing what no one cares about, until you see it first and show in a more organized way that feeling that was going unnoticed. My job is to collect, separate, welcome the words and make them even more beautiful within the sentences and deliver all of this as a gift to the families,

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

The main tool for working with children and families is to dream with them. It is impossible to put yourself in a different place. Children are born poets and the learning that families have from children is the greatest book of poetry ever written in our lives. The greatest poet of all encourages us every day. And I am not even talking about God, I am talking about what everyone sees and can feel: time.
We must always update ourselves, read, listen, be curious and kind. It is impossible to work with children just for the money. We are dealing with human beings who can become the president of the United States. Don’t forget, just like death, childhood is inevitable. We were all children!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zuandosom.com
• Instagram: @zuandosom
• Facebook: @zuandosom
• Youtube: @zuandosom
• Soundcloud: zuandosom
• Other: Spotify: zuandosom

Image Credits

Pictures: Vinícius Prates/ Lucas Cardoso