Casa Fado ao Centro is a Cultural Centre – Fado House. Located in the city’s historic centre, it opens its doors every day of the year, without exception, to welcome anyone who wants to come and discover, remember and appreciate the genuine academic experience and traditions surrounding Coimbra’s Fado.
Every day, at 6pm, we hold our live show, a unique cultural experience and an opportunity to witness the magic of Coimbra’s Fado, performed by some of the city’s most renowned musicians. Book your place and visit us.

Casa de Fados – Centro Cultural a Capella presents a daily show/serenade of Fado, Song and Guitar from Coimbra. The show starts every day at 9.30pm.
Housed in a 14th century chapel, Casa de Fados aCapella offers visitors a pleasant terrace, bar and tapas service and free Wi-Fi.
The Capella is located in Coimbra’s Jewish quarter, on the site of the ancient medieval synagogue.
Open every day.

‘Esfanes’ is a meeting point, in a simulacrum of a premeditated event.
There are five musicians in a rehearsed collision, all in the practice of reflecting on each other’s ideas. They decide to take the communal artistic path, which is as often diffuse as it is concrete, in which one decides and gives in, and thus shapes the expression of this encounter. A collective sound is created, at once vertebrate and invertebrate, sometimes in lyric, sometimes in free rhyme.
In 2024 they released their first album, in which they record the evolution of the musical material they chose to delve into over the previous two years, always seeking to increase the flexibility of this music in order to discover the indeterminable layers it contains.

Hugo Ferreira – Guitar
Gil Silva – Saxophone
Miguel Meirinhos – Piano
João Fragoso – Double bass
João Cardita – Drums

Ticket: 7€

Marcelo dos Reis – guitar
Luís Filipe Silva – drums
Miguel Falcão – double bass

Blitz chose Marcelo dos Reis’ project “Flora” as one of the 50 best albums of 2023.
‘Flora’ or the green in an imagined desert. ‘Flora’ or the consciousness-expanding entheogenic seed. ‘Flora’ or when psychedelic rock meets jazz (…)
‘Flora’ is a moody album, made up of ingenious dynamics, abrupt changes of direction and aural fractals that invite recursive introspection. It is also an immensely energetic and vigorous work, a kind of condenser that gradually charges up and then releases all the accumulated power in a continuous flow of electrifying tempestuousness.
There is no room for silence during the proposed journey: either you are hypnotised in languid meditations with flavours of oriental mysticism or you set sail towards the eye of a tornado where riffed winds and groovy gusts propel the listener towards uninterrupted climaxes. Think of a columnar vortex that moves across a warm desert and consumes everything in its path: the wind takes everything that the wind took. Fatality. But also apotheosis and glorification and spectacularity. Behind them, suffocating dust and stirred-up sand. The trio resists. And the ‘Flora’, firm and imperturbable: here, red mushrooms with white spots and brown hats; there, thirsty and crunchy grasses, naked trunks, shamanic cacti. The green in the desert and the seed that restarts the cycle. And there the trio begins again their pilgrimage towards an unknown place where the horizon line joins the infinity of the imagination’ (in jazz.pt).

This year, when the 45th anniversary of the SNS is being celebrated, Paulo Bernardino’s Christmas Cantata ‘O Pássaro Azul’ (The Blue Bird), inspired by the literary work of António Arnaut (1936-2018), takes to the stage of the Convento São Francisco. This choral-symphonic work is intended as a tribute to the National Health Service (SNS), evoking the politician, lawyer and writer who became known as the ‘Father of the SNS’. In this cantata, Paulo Bernardino, a native of the municipality of Penela like António Arnaut, transforms the texts of ‘O Pássaro Azul – Contos e Poemas de Natal’, published by Coimbra Editora in 1998, into music. As well as the usual orchestral instruments, the instrumentation also includes the Coimbra Guitar, the soul of our Coimbra song and a metaphor for our Portugueseness. On stage, more than 200 people lend their voices to the poet, singing the profound humanity that emanates from his verses.
The concert ends with the Hymn of the 45th Anniversary of the SNS and is sponsored by the Centre Regional Section of the Portuguese Medical Association, the Coimbra Local Health Unit and IPO Coimbra.

In the second half of 2024, we will continue the Café Curto cycle of showcases, which began in October 2020 and has already had more than 150 sessions. On a weekly basis, on Tuesday evenings, the public will be able to enjoy a variety of musical proposals on the stage of the Café Concerto of the Convento São Francisco. Between 3 September and 17 December, there will be 15 performances featuring artists with expressions ranging from the intimacy of folk song, to the experimentalism of electronica, the energy of pop, the boldness of jazz and the unique jazz and the singularity of world music.

MIC – Musa

Musa is the latest musical project selected by the MIC – Música Independente de Coimbra call for proposals to appear at Café Curto in 2024. Mariana Garrido is a recent law graduate from the University of Coimbra and, when she sings, she is Musa, inspired by influences ranging from indie, soul, bossa nova and jazz. She recently discovered that, as well as using her voice as an instrument, she likes to compose, and has been collecting songs on the pages of a notebook, which are now coming to life.

Orchestral suites are collections of short dances that were performed at informal social occasions, such as noblemen’s dinners or open-air parties. This genre became very popular in Germany during Bach’s time. Four orchestral suites by the composer are known, and a fifth was later attributed to his son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. It’s not known why they were composed and for what occasion, as they don’t form part of a cycle like the Brandenburg concertos.
It is likely that they were written as festive music for the courts of Weimar and Cöthen. They later formed part of the repertoire of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig, the prestigious group of musicians of which Bach was appointed director in 1729, and which met regularly at the Café Zimmermann to play. They are good examples of the composer’s lighter style and an unquestionable example of his mastery. The pieces follow the French model, starting with a slower, more solemn opening followed by a more energetic middle section and various short dances.
The cantata Non sa che sia dolore, BWV 209, a secular cantata first performed in Leipzig in 1747, is one of two cantatas with Italian text composed by Bach, along with Amore traditore.
It was probably composed as a farewell to someone who had left the Leipzig academic community. A possible candidate would have been Johann Matthias Gesner, a classical scholar and friend of Bach who was born in Ansbach, the town mentioned in the cantata, and was for several years rector of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where Bach also worked. On the other hand, the text also mentions a journey in service of the homeland, as well as Minerva, the goddess of defensive warfare, and speaks of a young person. It could therefore have been dedicated to a young man who was going to serve in the army.

Ivo and Kateryna met at the end of 2023 when they were working on different projects at CAMALEÃO studio in Lisbon.

They always kept up with their personal projects, until they decided to join forces to start the Room 4’2 project. They now bring to Tabacaria original music by both of them, which takes us on a journey through various stories. ‘My Home’ tells us about a person who had to leave Ukraine to find another place to call home. ‘Sunset’ tells the story of how a sunset can make us feel, or what it can mean at different stages of life. A soulful and meaningful experience that you won’t want to miss.

‘Good Morning’ is the first sample from Memória de Peixe’s eagerly awaited third album, due for release in early 2025 under the Omnichord Records label. Mixing elements of indie, rock, jazz and hip-hop – always enriched by generous moments of improvisation – Memória de Peixe once again explores the limits of contemporary alternative music. The new disc inaugurates the group’s power-trio phase, made up of Miguel Nicolau (guitars, electronics, vocals), Filipe Louro (bass, electronics, vocals) and Pedro Melo Alves (drums, electronics, vocals).
Memória de Peixe is an instrumental band formed in 2011 and known for its innovative approach to alternative music. They came to prominence with their eponymous debut album in 2012, followed by ‘Himiko Cloud’ in 2016. Both were praised by critics for their creativity and the way they explore different sonic frontiers. Ahead of their return to publishing with ‘III’, Memória de Peixe will be presenting the new songs in full and first-hand in December on a small club tour.
Support: Antena 3
–
Tickets: 12€

Swimming Pablo, a rapper and songwriter from Coimbra, is one of the new talents to emerge on the Portuguese hip-hop scene. At 26, he has a flair for writing and a versatile sound.
On 14 December, Swimming Pablo takes to the stage at Salão Brazil to present his debut EP ‘PABLO’, along with other songs that promise to surprise.

Tó Trips’ eclectic style blends rock, blues and traditional Portuguese music and has strongly influenced the country’s music scene. Known the world over for being part of the Dead Combo duo, Tó Trips has been working on solo albums with autobiographical traits for over a decade, demonstrating all the power of four decades of guitar playing in a case of rare resilience and constant inventiveness.
‘Guitarra 66’, released in 2006, was his first solo album, raw and luminous. A guitar with people inside, just like that of the master Paredes, populated by memories and experiences. In 2015, he released ‘Guitarra Makaka – Danças a um Deus Desconhecido’ (Makaka Guitar – Dances to an Unknown God), recorded with a Resonator guitar, normally associated with Bukka White’s blues, but revisited here through a very personal imaginary.
Last year he released ‘Popular Jaguar’ on Revolve. A record of mysteries, silences, places, in a vivid mosaic full of lyricism, in a tessitura of mournful chords and notes that cut through everything that might sound superficial. In essence, Trips at his most stripped-down and curiously open. Always him.

10€

In the second half of 2024, we will continue the Café Curto cycle of showcases, which began in October 2020 and has already had more than 150 sessions. On a weekly basis, on Tuesday evenings, the public will be able to enjoy a variety of musical proposals on the stage of the Café Concerto of the Convento São Francisco. Between 3 September and 17 December, there will be 15 performances featuring artists with expressions ranging from the intimacy of folk song, to the experimentalism of electronica, the energy of pop, the boldness of jazz and the unique jazz and the singularity of world music.

Joana Guerra + Gil Jerónimo

Joana Guerra is a Portuguese composer, cellist and singer with a particular taste for non-conformism and a passion for experimentation, entertaining a unique universe that is constantly expanding. She is part of various experimental music, free improvisation, noise, rock, folk and free jazz projects. She has worked with names such as Joelle Léandre, Surma, Mia Distonia, Yaw Tembe, Tiago Sousa, Lula Pena, Pop Dell’Arte, among others. She has released four discs of his homonymous solo project, performing it on important stages and festivals in Portugal and abroad.

In this Café Duplo she is joined by Gil Jerónimo, a musician from Leiria whose experience also includes theatre and dance. He was a member of the band Les Crazy Coconuts and is currently part of the Jerónimo project, alongside his brothers, and Lost Lake, who are preparing to release an EP in 2024.

Bárbara Tinoco is a singer-songwriter born in Lisbon in 1998.
In 2018, she made headlines with her very brief stint in the casting phase of the programme ‘The Voice Portugal’, where, although she wasn’t selected, she had the opportunity to perform an original song.
It was this song – ‘Antes Dela Dizer Que Sim’ – that she released in 2019 as her debut single, recorded at RF Estúdio and Estúdio Zeco by Ricardo Ferreira, João Só and Nuno Simões. The video already has over 10 million views on YouTube. The second single – ‘Sei Lá’ – was released in December of that year.
Since then, and with two original albums out, she has established herself as one of the most influential female artists of the new generation of Portuguese music, having already been honoured with a Play Award, a Golden Globe and a Five Star Award and filled the biggest concert halls in the country.

This is a charity concert, the proceeds of which go entirely to the Liga dos Pequeninos of the Coimbra Paediatric Hospital.

The Orquestra Clássica do Centro (OCC) presents a programme dedicated to Félix Mendelssohn’s masterpiece ‘Psalm 42’ and ‘Um Natal Português, sobre melodias populares’ for choir and orchestra, by composer Fernando Lapa with the participation of soprano Sofia Marafona and the Art’Amoris Ensemble choir (conductor Carla Pais).
The OCC’s Christmas Concert is directed by conductor Diogo Costa and also features the Coimbra Vocal Choir, the Choral Poliphonico de Coimbra and the Coimbra Regional Conservatory Choir performing some of the best-known Christmas carols from around the world this festive season, such as Adolph Adam’s ‘Holy Night’ and ‘Adeste Fideles’.