Explore these opportunities for education at Carmel’s Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts. For more information and to purchase tickets for these events, keep reading or go to TheCenterPresents.org.
FrontRow: Up close & personal
Grammy winner Samara Joy is one of the hottest young voices in jazz, but in advance of her knockout Nov. 14 performance at the Payne & Mencias Palladium, she and her band were kind enough to share their experiences with music students from Indiana Wesleyan University and Indianapolis’ Shortridge High School.
Allied Solutions Center’s FrontRow program provides local high school and college student groups with complimentary dinner and tickets to select Center Presents season performances, where the young performers sit in on the preshow sound check and enjoy a Q&A with a world-class touring artist.
At other FrontRow sessions this fall, TV and Broadway star Matthew Morrison met Oct. 17 with choir and theater students from Decatur Central High School; up-and-coming jazz trumpeter Brandon Woody met Nov. 9 with Purdue University jazz students; and the French baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants met Sunday with young string players from ISO’s Metropolitan Youth Orchestra and Owen County SOUNDS, a nonprofit violin and fiddle academy.
Educators interested in learning more about FrontRow opportunities can inquire at Outreach@TheCenterPresents.org.
Go behind the scenes of White Christmas
Our siblings at the Great American Songbook Foundation have assembled a super-fun historical exhibit to accompany their sold-out screening of the classic 1954 Hollywood musical White Christmas, which featured songs by Irving Berlin and starring roles for Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney.
The White Christmas Artifact Display runs through Dec. 20 with special extended hours in the Traditions Senior Communities Songbook Gallery at the Payne & Mencias Palladium. The display will include rare items related to the film from the Songbook Library & Archives and the Rosemary Clooney House Museum in Kentucky, including authentic costumes and promotional materials, a piano custom-built for Berlin, personal items owned by Clooney and Crosby, and much more. Admission is free, but tickets are required, and you can learn more about the exhibit here.
Do you like to sing?
And – whether on stage or in the shower – would you like to sing better? That’s the point of the Group Vocal Coaching class, led by New York cabaret veteran and longtime university educator Todd Neal. In a casual and supportive group setting, participants learn about song selection and interpretation, vocal technique, projection, stage presence and more. No previous vocal training is required for the class, which runs Wednesday evenings March 18 through April 15 (though not March 25).
Then, armed with your new skills and confidence, you can attend the annual World Voice Day celebration, set for 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 19. The first 30 people to sign up at 2:30 that day will have the opportunity to sing one song of their choice on the glamorous Payne & Mencias Palladium stage.
In other news
Always a highlight of the Center’s holiday offerings, both of the Dec. 13 Peanut Butter & Jam family performances by Melchior Marionettes are sold out. Now is a great time to buy tickets for the Jan. 13 PB&J, when we’ll be moving and grooving with Indianapolis R&B band The Call.
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The Palladium Bookies reading club meets Dec. 15 to discuss 2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino. If you need a longer runway, the selection for the Feb. 9 gathering is Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, an epic novel about the theatrical family that spawned a presidential assassin. Click here to learn more and RSVP for Bookies.
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A few spaces are still available in our Intro to Stand-Up Comedy class, Jan. 26 to Feb. 16, and the March-May, and May-June sections of the Child & Adult Music Classes for tots.