ON SALE SOON
Wednesday, Oct 28 2026, 10:00 AM CDT

Songs to Light a Winter's Night ft. Katie Dahl, Anne Heaton, and Jenny Bienemann
Tue, 15 Dec, 7:30 PM CST
Doors open
6:30 PM CST
SPACE
1245 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL 60202
ON SALE SOON
Wednesday, Oct 28 2026, 10:00 AM CDT
Description
Songwriters Katie Dahl (Door County), Anne Heaton (Milwaukee), and Jenny Bienemann (Chicago) join together to present “Songs to Light a Winter’s Night," an intimate evening of original songs and songs to celebrate the winter solstice.
Katie Dahl, Anne Heaton, and Jenny Bienemann are each songwriters with loyal fan bases and multiple accolades to their credit. Though they normally perform individually, in “Songs to Light a Winter’s Night” they will share their songs in an intimate “in-the-round” format, commenting on and adding texture to one another’s work as they illuminate and celebrate the darkest days of the year. Dahl, Heaton, and Bienemann are rooted in the folk tradition, with songs that roam freely to explore country, jazz, and rock traditions.
Nationally touring songwriter Katie Dahl “combines old-fashioned populism, an abiding love of the land, and wickedly smart love songs, all delivered in a rich and expressive alto” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Known for the intelligence and vulnerability of her songs and the easy humor of her live performances, Dahl also has five studio albums and two original musical plays, Victory Farm and The Fisherman’s Daughters, to her credit. Wisconsin Public Radio calls Dahl “the real deal.”
Anne Heaton, based in Milwaukee, is a singer-songwriter and pianist who has captured audience imaginations for over fifteen years with her songs that are, by turns, “tender, barbed and spiritual” (Washington Post). She’s been featured by the New York Times Music Podcast, played on NPR, at the Sundance Film Festival, and for Lilith Fair (2010). Known for the infectious energy of her live performances – “a natural performer [with] a rich, soaring voice” (Seattle Times) – Anne has played over 1000 headlining shows nationwide, and has shared the stage with artists such as Jewel and Sarah McLachlan.
Jenny Bienemann is an award-winning poet, singer, songwriter, and visual artist with a mission to find the extraordinary in the everyday. With three critically acclaimed studio albums and two live albums, her music has underscored TV, film and theater projects. She began a daily practice of taking photos and writing haiku. What started as a lark quickly evolved into Haiku Milieu, a movement of creativity and community. Today, there are four Haiku Milieu books, and more than 350 new songs inspired by Haiku Milieu, written by artists from across the United States. She has been featured in the Chicago Tribune Arts Section, WGN Radio 720 in Chicago, Chicago Public Radio, Northern Illinois Public Radio, Naperville Magazine, and more.
Event Information
Age Limit
All Ages
Singer-Songwriter
Katie Dahl
Katie Dahl
Singer-Songwriter

Singer-Songwriter
Anne Heaton
Anne Heaton
Singer-Songwriter
Singer-songwriter and classically trained pianist Anne Heaton has amassed awards and praise from critics, fellow artists and fans with her songs that are by turns “tender, barbed and spiritual” (Washington Post). Her graceful, vulnerable, and sometimes humorous pop-folk songs have captured audience imaginations for over a decade.
Heaton has played the Sundance Film Festival, Lilith Fair (2010), and was a featured artist on the New York Times Music Podcast. Heaton has played numerous times on NPR and has shared the stage with some of her favorite artists including Sarah McLachlan and jazz drummer Max Roach. In 2012, she was invited to perform on The Cayamo Cruise as part of Winterbloom (featuring Antje Duvekot, Meg Hutchinson and Natalia Zukerman) with artists such as Keb ‘Mo and The Civil Wars.
Known for the infectious energy of her live performances — “a natural performer [with] a rich, soaring voice” (Seattle Times) — Heaton has toured throughout the US since 2001 playing acoustic venues, outdoor theaters, rock clubs, and festivals. In 2005, she won Soul City Cafe, a national competition of live performances and online voting to choose Jewel’s opener for her West Coast Tour. In addition to Jewel’s tour, Heaton has toured as an opening act for Melissa Ferrick and HEM, as well as opened for/performed with Chris Trapper, Jill Sobule and Jonatha Brooke.
On the heels of her most recent album, Honeycomb, on February 14, 2014, Anne Heaton releases Dora, a collaborative album of poems-turned-songs with poet Claire Clube. These poem-songs—visceral, ethereal, and set to a mix of singer-songwriter pop, classical and jazz/blues—explore a woman’s relationships with her world and the emotions of divorce. Tragically, in summer 2013, not long after sponsoring a young child in Kenya and just before this album was to be released, poet and collaborator Clube died in a plane crash with her daughter, Bess. “I know she wanted to share these songs with people, and she was a person who lived her life so fully and fearlessly that’s what I’ll take with me,” says Heaton.
Heaton studied at the University of Notre Dame, writing her senior thesis on Debussy’s piano works, and then enriched her musical training by studying composition and jazz vocals at The City College of New York. Always a fan of Peter Gabriel, the Indigo Girls, and Tori Amos, she also became fascinated by early American spirituals while living in New York, and sang in a Harlem gospel choir.
Singer-Songwriter
Jenny Bienemann
Jenny Bienemann
Singer-Songwriter