Her Only Light: Songs of Connie Converse

About this event

Her Only Light: Songs of Connie Converse w/ Em Spel

Date: Sunday, November 15th, 2026

Doors: 6:00PM to Venue | 6:30PM to Sanctuary

Showtime: 7:00PM

Tickets:

Advanced - $25 (+$5.13 fees, including tax)

Day of Show - $30 (+$6.57 fees, including tax)

VIP Table for 2 - $100 (+$15.36 fees, including tax)

VIP Table for 4 - $200 (+$18.36 fees, including tax)

VIP tables include admission for 2 or 4 people and a reserved table close to the stage

‘Service charges apply to ALL ticket purchases (online and box office)’ - Credit card only at door

About Her Only Light:

Her Only Light features Elizabeth "Connie" Converse’s folk songs and art songs, sung by Emmy Bean and arranged by Ronnie Kuller for an ensemble of harp, violin, viola, clarinets, and sometimes accordion. Emmy Bean and Ronnie Kuller have created and played music together in Chicago for over a decade. Their work together has included crowd-sourced odes performed in parks by moonlight, settings of the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, and most recently, the arrangement and performance of the works of Connie Converse. Their collaboration is inspired by themes of darkness and light, the natural world, children and families, and the liberating power of all that is absurd, colorful, playful, and strange.

“This heroine of songwriting contained multitudes—and with Her Only Light, we are finally provided Connie Converse in full, resplendent resolution.”

— Doyle Armbrust

“… a joyous renewal of their commitment to Converse’s legacy. Her songs are wry, weird, evocative, and beautiful, and it’s a delight to hear them done justice in a lovingly staged cabaret-style performance with violin, viola, cello, harp, and clarinets. Somewhere in space and time, Converse is smiling…”

— Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader

Ronnie Kuller, conductor

Emmy Bean, vocals

Barbara Drapcho, clarinet

Michael Tran, clarinets

Lauren Hayes, harp

Katie Klocke, violin

Elizabeth Choi, viola

Melissa Bach, cello

About Em Spel:

“Scintillating....Hospelhorn's pop-adjacent experimental folk features her lovely, elastic vocals, her flute, and her intricately programmed electronics.” — Chicago Reader

“Beguiling” — WNYC

Em Spel's intricate, flute-driven alt-folk sounds like nothing else. The solo project of Chicago-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emma Hospelhorn, Em Spel’s sophomore album, Bird or Snake, was released to widespread praise in 2026. Hospelhorn is a flutist in avant-classical group Ensemble Dal Niente, and her discography includes work on flutes, bass guitar, and keyboards for V.V. Lightbody, Mute Duo, and others working in a diverse array of genres including folk, drone, garage rock, post-punk, and classical. In this solo endeavor, she fuses all of these influences with story-driven lyrics to create invitingly strange folk vignettes. To listen, visit emspel.bandcamp.com.

From West Loop Entertainment