Fringe Festival spotlights indie performers

This weekend’s Milwaukee Fringe Festival offers the once-a-year chance to see independent local performing artists at the Marcus Center.

That includes a surprising newer group in local music, Aperi Animam, a dozen twentysomethings who sing choral music from the medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque periods. The group’s name is Latin for “open your soul,” said artistic director and tenor Daniel Koplitz.

Made up largely of singers with a past or present connection to UWM, though not an official university group, Aperi Animam will sing at 2:15 p.m. Saturday at Marcus Center Todd Wehr Theater. The choral group will draw on music from its recent “Treasures” concert, highlighting composers of the Tudor and early Jacobean eras in England, including William Byrd.

Aperi Animam hopes “to provide a sanctuary for their audience that inspires reflection and meditation,” according to its mission statement. Koplitz and his Aperi Animam colleagues also aim to create an accessible experience for contemporary listeners. For example, the group has made several striking performance videos, and plans to make more.

Listeners intrigued by Saturday’s sample of Aperi Animam can look forward to the group’s next full concert, “Pro Defunctis: Music for the Dead,” Nov. 3 and 4 at the Jan Serr Studio in UWM’s Kenilworth Square East building, 2155 N. Prospect Ave.