Retirement homes sing at Teatro Aveirense
Published at — 21 October 2025
The Cantar-o-Lar project is returning to the Teatro Aveirense with a new show created from the memories, voices and stories of elderly people from four nursing homes in the municipality of Aveiro. The performance will take place on 26 October at 3 pm, with free admission.
This new creation is the result of months of collaborative work between users and staff from four institutions — Centro Social Santa Joana Princesa, Centro Paroquial de S. Bernardo, Florinhas do Vouga and Fundação Casa do Pessoal da Segurança Social e Saúde do Distrito de Aveiro — with artistic and musical guidance from Beatriz Mendes, Daniel Almeida and Ana Raquel Tavares. Fifty-one users and employees from the participating institutions will be on stage.
During the workshops held at the institutions, memories, songs and local expressions were collected and used as a starting point for original compositions, transforming personal experiences into creative material. In this fourth concert, new topics — such as old coradouros (fishing nets) and laundry — and iconic spaces, such as Praça do Peixe, are brought to the stage. It will also be an opportunity for the audience to hear some of the now classic co-created pieces from the community's growing repertoire, which will appear at key moments, among many other surprises prepared by the group.
However, this will not be the only opportunity to hear these songs. The community is preparing to record a CD that will take the studio to the participating institutions, recording this co-creation work as a common legacy.
Promoted by the Aveiro City Council, Cantar-o-Lar was created as part of Aveiro 2024 – Portuguese Capital of Culture and has since been part of the Teatro Aveirense programme, establishing itself as an initiative that unites art, community and social inclusion through music.
This new creation is the result of months of collaborative work between users and staff from four institutions — Centro Social Santa Joana Princesa, Centro Paroquial de S. Bernardo, Florinhas do Vouga and Fundação Casa do Pessoal da Segurança Social e Saúde do Distrito de Aveiro — with artistic and musical guidance from Beatriz Mendes, Daniel Almeida and Ana Raquel Tavares. Fifty-one users and employees from the participating institutions will be on stage.
During the workshops held at the institutions, memories, songs and local expressions were collected and used as a starting point for original compositions, transforming personal experiences into creative material. In this fourth concert, new topics — such as old coradouros (fishing nets) and laundry — and iconic spaces, such as Praça do Peixe, are brought to the stage. It will also be an opportunity for the audience to hear some of the now classic co-created pieces from the community's growing repertoire, which will appear at key moments, among many other surprises prepared by the group.
However, this will not be the only opportunity to hear these songs. The community is preparing to record a CD that will take the studio to the participating institutions, recording this co-creation work as a common legacy.
Promoted by the Aveiro City Council, Cantar-o-Lar was created as part of Aveiro 2024 – Portuguese Capital of Culture and has since been part of the Teatro Aveirense programme, establishing itself as an initiative that unites art, community and social inclusion through music.
