Academic Tunas, an experience for life.
The years spent at the University are always remarkable. Adulthood is reached, friendships are more selective and long-lasting, there’s an autonomy never experienced before. However, whoever chooses to be part of an Academic Tuna will experience these years in an even more intense way. Rehearsals, companionship, shows, travels, tours, meetings and festivals bring a daily intensity and a connection that marks each tuno forever. The Tuna, as a group, becomes a second family, with a brotherly coexistence, sharing knowledge and experiences that are difficult to match.
The Academic Tuna is a musical group made up of university students (although in the past there were also high school students’ tunas) and the musical repertoire is diverse, from traditional Portuguese music or popular music to originals that may have as theme the student bohemian life or the celebration of love. The Tunas perform on stage with their academic costumes and their main instruments are the viola, the cavaquinho, the mandolin, the bass, the accordion, the violin, the flute, and of course, the tambourine, which always brings so much animation to the performances.
When a fresher joins Tuna, if he doesn't know how to play an instrument yet, he chooses one and starts to learn with the help of the older tunos. He will not only learn to play the Tuna's songs, but he will learn what it means to be a tuno. He will “live” the Tuna, the guitars, the bohemian nights, the serenades at the window, and, little by little, he will understand what it means to be part of the Tuna, that restricted group of friends who spend a good part of their lives together. Between rehearsals, performances, tours, parties and dinners, there are weeks when the academic costume has no rest, it’s worn every day, as well as the musical instrument, which becomes a faithful companion, following the tuno wherever he goes.
The tuno will always keep this unique experience that the academic and tuna life provide, with friendships sealed forever, a feeling of belonging to something bigger, which never disappears. Even when life keeps the tuno away from the everyday life of his Tuna, he never stops to be one, that status will be his forever, because it was conquered and is felt even from a distance.
The one who writes to you has had the privilege of experiencing all this in the first person.
Once tuno, forever tuno!