Velorio: songs for the ones who’ve left us
Saturday, October 31, 2026
A listening journey curated by Omelas.
Afternoon Session: Doors 4:30pm.
Evening Session: Doors 7:30pm.
Omelas Listening Room
San Juan
A listening session on the musical traditions the world has made to honour its dead, from Puerto Rico outward.
Music that sits with the dead and keeps the relationship alive. We begin in Puerto Rico: the velorio, the baquiné, the sung rosary, the voices answering a single voice in a house full of neighbours. From there the road runs through New Orleans and its funerals with brass, Día de Muertos in Michoacán, the funerals of Ghana, the laments of Ireland, the cremations of Bali, the songs of Toraja, Madagascar’s famadihana and the rites of Korea and Japan.
Each tradition does something different with the same question: how to stay in relationship with those who are gone. We listen to field and archival recordings, with time to introduce each one and silence after. A wake is, before anything else, keeping company.
Tickets are sold in advance only—there will be no door sales.
100% of ticket proceeds go directly to the featured artist—or to the artist or curator leading the session.
Afternoon Session
4:30 p.m.
Doors 4:30pm, session begins 5:00pm.
Evening Session
7:30 p.m.
Doors 7:30pm, session begins 8:00pm.
Photographs: EfrenDelRosal, Tzintzuntzán (CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped); Edwin Rosskam, Puerto Rico 1938, Library of Congress (public domain).
