This winter's annual Artemis Singers' concert, "Embracing the Night," is designed to help listeners connect with their inner strength as they brave the cold winter months.
The program begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 20 at the Euclid Avenue Methodist Church, 405 S. Euclid Ave., in Oak Park. Tickets cost $25 or can be purchased with a suggested donation of $10-$30.
"People are always complaining about the winter, but this show is about looking at the season in a different way," said Loraine Edwalds, the show's artistic director. "It's about celebrating the different energy that exists in the winter. It's a wonderful thing to live in a place that has winter, where we can spend the long nights in contemplation, rather than running around, doing things outside."
Artemis Singers was founded in 1980 and is entirely self-directed, so each member has a unique role in curating and producing the group's performances.
The chorus specializes in performing music written or arranged by women. It's also committed to performing more music created by Black, Indigenous and various women of color composers.
The chorus has recently grown to include more than 40 members, up from about 30 members last year.
"As someone who's been in the chorus for a really long time, it's easy to get complacent with it, and think, 'This is just who we are and what we do,'" Edwalds explained. "But having new singers, particularly younger ones, is great because they bring so many new ideas."
With more singers, the group is excited to showcase an "even more lush choral" sound during its winter performance, Edwalds said.
The show weaves together popular music, like Zanaida Robles's "She Lingers On," with lesser-known choral arrangements, such as Nigerian-American musician Ayo Awosika's "How We Start Again," which will be sung in Chicago for the first time Jan. 20.
Another song on the program is "Gamba Adisa," by composer Joan Szymko, based on poetry from the Black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde. The phrase "Gamba Adisa" means "Warrior: she who makes her meaning clear."
"Hearing the music really illuminates the meaning of the poem," Edwalds said. "It makes the poem so much more rich and meaningful to me than if I had just read it on a page. Many of these songs are so rewarding to sing, and we hope that they're rewarding for listeners to hear as well."
The overarching theme of the chorus's upcoming performance emphasizes the importance of "drawing on your own inner strength so you are not so afraid" of the long winter nights ahead, Edwalds said.
"When we embrace the night, we embrace possibility and the year in front of us," the show's program reads. "Not just the changes we know will surprise us, but the change that we will make for ourselves. We are gathering strength, in the beauty that is the night. We will celebrate the long nights of winter and look forward to the coming light of spring."
Edwalds hopes the concert provides listeners with a "warm, positive feeling" and that they leave the show inspired to continue creating positive change in the world.
For more information about Artemis Singers and their Jan. 20 show, visit artemissingers.org/.