When Christine Sandoval, activity director for the Santa Fe Care Center, sees her residents writing music and rehearsing their modern-dance performance for the upcoming Lifesongs concert at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, she said she's a little ashamed of herself.

"I think, 'I can't do that,' " Sandoval said, "and here are my elders going out there and knocking them dead."

This is the fifth year Sandoval has had residents participate in the free Lifesongs concert, which is a collaboration between Littleglobe and the Santa Fe Opera. The facility's eight-member Bits and Pieces musical group will open this year's show, which is 4 p.m. today at the Lensic.

"We call ourselves the Bits and Pieces songwriting group because somebody puts in a piece here and somebody puts in a thought there," Sandoval said.

For the past five years, Littleglobe and the Santa Fe Opera Community Education Program have sent artists to three facilities — Santa Fe Care Center, Ambercare Hospice Services and Coming Home Connection — to help residents and clients create songs about their lives. For the program, a writer and musician pair up with an elder, and together the team creates a song.

This year, Valerie Martinez, executive director of Littleglobe, was paired with Tomasita Martinez, who passed away on Feb. 2, shortly after finishing up her lifesong.

"In our last session, she was really struggling for breathe," Valerie Martinez noted. She told Tomasita Martinez to not worry about talking, but said, "(Tomastia) wanted so badly to say everything she needed to say to create this piece."

Tomasita Martinez had been writing letters to loved ones in the last few months of her life, and she wanted to write a letter to her late husband. When Valerie Martinez and musician Jeff Brown first met with Tomasita Martinez, she said she knew exactly what the opening line of her song would be: "Forgive me," she said.

"She'd been sick all of her life since she was fairly young and her husband had taken care of her all their married life. He'd worked very hard and sacrificed for her medications," Valerie Martinez said. "I think she wanted to say, 'Forgive me for being the sick one.' Probably she didn't need to ask for forgiveness — she couldn't control how sick she was — but she wanted to say that to him."

The song evolved into the story of marriage and how it's not a fairy tale, Valerie Martinez said. "The song is about how marriages aren't usually fairy tales; they're actually better than that," she added. "(Tomasita) called it a blessing. ... Her marriage was more than perfect because they were devoted to each other."

Lifesongs is an intergenerational community collaboration, Valerie Martinez said. It will feature the stories of seven elders who are humorous and wise. Santa Fe Opera stage director Achushla Bastible is the director of the show; Molly Sturges, Littleglobe artistic director, will hold the same position in the performance as she does with Littleglobe.

Talent from Dolce Suono — the 60-member University of New Mexico chorus — as well as students from Santa Fe Waldorf School and the Santa Fe Opera's Young Voices program will perform the lifesongs.

"It's a beautiful collaboration of people of all ages who bear witness and honor with these elders have to say," Valerie Martinez said.

Sandoval said the Lifesongs program is a blessing for her residents.

"My elders are once again included in the community," Sandoval said. "When (the artists) come to work with us, they treat the elders with such a high level of respect and dignity."

This year's performance lasts 75 minutes. Valerie Martinez recommends getting to the Lensic early to get a good seat.

"It's really going to be phenomenal," Sandoval said. "In the five years that we've been working with the (Santa Fe) Opera and Littleglobe, I really feel that this is the best thing we've created so far with them."

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.