Singing Back the Darkness

It’s just a few nights before the darkest day of the year, at least in the earthly sense, when along comes this amazing experience, full of light in every way. It’s free buoyancy. It’s a way to put your sense of isolation in isolation. A way to get out of the noise of The Holidays and into the rhythm of your heart.

Every year the indefatigable dancer, musician, teacher and more Roberta Kirn gracefully pulls off the Songs of Peace, Hope and Light concert. This hour of a cappella music is reliably the best investment you can make in your soul during this season when an hour, or your soul, can be hard to find. The music can make you laugh at the absurdities of your life, cry at the wondrousness of it, or just enjoy the melody of it.

This concert is not about any religion but it is real spiritual release. Ms. Kirn, who studies with Sweet Honey in the Rock’s Ysaye Maria Barnwell, makes each singer a workshop disc of each part to practice ... they’ve been singing them in their cars for weeks as you passed them on Island roads, learning complex harmonies as you passed on their left.

You can sit quietly, close your eyes and just let a group of your neighbors lift you with their voices. If you’d rather, you will get a shot at clapping, dancing or singing along. It’s surprising how it turns out to be like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea; as the writer Anne Lamott explains the impulse, “You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”

The Songs of Peace, Hope and Light begins at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 19, for all ages at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center. Admission is free.