This holiday season, WomenSing takes a fresh look at the sounds and traditions of winter. The Traditional… and the Unexpected! brings together beloved melodies, surprising musical discoveries, and audience singalongs in a program that travels from the last bird of autumn to the stillness of snow, from ancient wisdom to the promise of a new year.

The concert opens in a quiet garden, where the birdsong of a piccolo surrounds the nuns’ Ave Maria from Puccini’s Suor Angelica. From there, winter unfolds across cultures and musical worlds, from the haunting Catalan carol El cant dels ocells and Fairuz’s beloved Lebanese song Talj Talj to the shimmering Finnish soundscape of Heikki Sarmanto’s Hanget soi. After intermission, the program looks ahead to WomenSing’s international tour to Croatia and Slovenia next summer, with music by contemporary Slovenian composer Tadeja Vulc and Renaissance master Jacobus Gallus, who was born in the region of present-day Slovenia.

Come celebrate a holiday season in which old and new, near and far, stillness and excitement meet. The familiar is seen from a new angle, and something unexpected is waiting just around the corner.