Geraldo Quintas Aug 21, 2016:

Just FYI, in Portugal, Tunas are groups that sing along to mostly string instruments. Tunas Académicas are tunas that are affiliated with a Faculty or a whole University. They are groups of students that join to play a variety of songs. Some of them are very amateurish, some of them are a bit camp and satirical (e.g. Orxestra Pitagórica) and quite a few are actually quite good (e.g. Tuna Universitária do Porto). Apparently the whole idea came from Spain, and quite a few Latin American countries also have their own Tunas Académicas. As for the translation, I'm not sure what I'd chose, it'd depend on the context and intended audience.

Nick Taylor Aug 21, 2016:

basically it appears to be an amateur music group, where they dress up in "capas negras" - see the film. As usual "académica" is just another Portuguese "glorification" of playing "dress-up". So change my answer to "amateur music group".

João Costeira (X) Aug 20, 2016:

To put it simply: Tuna (always, upper case). One can add a translation note explaining that Tuna is an academic musical grouping.

Barbara Cochran, MFA Aug 19, 2016:

University VS Students I think it has more to do with groups of students that organize themselves, on their own, to perform music on campuses rather than any affiliation with a university.

That is, they do it independently from the university.

Nick Taylor Aug 19, 2016:

And here it is! "university musical ensemble"