Explore these opportunities for both arts and 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.
Center Presents Season Performances
Let’s Sing Taylor: An Unofficial Live Tribute Show
2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17
Payne & Mencias Palladium
Printing Partners Encore Series
Back by popular demand! Let’s Sing Taylor is the ultimate tribute to the music of Taylor Swift, featuring live musicians performing faithful and energetic covers of her expansive catalog. This family-friendly sing-along is taking the country by storm, bringing the communal experience of celebrating Taylor’s music in a live setting to Swifties near and far. So, let the games begin. Calling all Swifties to sing your hearts out and sport your Taylor-inspired attire. Let’s Sing Taylor is fan-sponsored and not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized or sponsored by TAS Rights Management, Taylor Swift or their affiliated entities.
Neko Case: Neon Grey Midnight Green Tour
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22
Payne & Mencias Palladium
Printing Partners Encore Series
Singer, songwriter, producer, visual artist, and writer Neko Case has been cited as “one of America’s best and most ambitious singer-songwriters” (Rolling Stone) and “essentially peerless” (NPR). In addition to many acclaimed and Grammy-nominated solo records, she is a founding member of Canadian supergroup the New Pornographers and author of The New York Times bestselling memoir The Harder I Fight the More I Love You and the weekly Substack newsletter Entering The Lung. Her eighth album, Neon Grey Midnight Green, was released in September. Opening the show will be Washington, D.C., band Des Demonas, hailed for their blend of punk, indie rock and Afrobeat.
Mac McAnally
8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23
Payne & Mencias Palladium
Printing Partners Encore Series
A longtime member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, songwriter, singer and instrumentalist Mac McAnally has written dozens of hits for artists including Alabama, Kenny Chesney and Sawyer Brown and has recorded with such names as Toby Keith, Linda Ronstadt, George Strait and Dolly Parton. He has won the Country Music Association’s Musician of the Year title a record-setting 10 times and has been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. His solo recording career began with the Top 40 single “It’s A Crazy World” and has grown to 14 album releases.
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Ray Chen, violin
8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30
Payne & Mencias Palladium
Leo Brown Group Classical Series
Founded in 1946, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is recognized as Britain’s most in-demand orchestra, with a busy schedule of national and international performances. The RPO also enjoys an annual season of concerts in London’s Royal Albert Hall, where it is Associate Orchestra; the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall; and Cadogan Hall, where it recently celebrated its 20th season as Resident Orchestra. Vasily Petrenko was named Music Director in 2021. This program of Nielsen, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, conducted by Petrenko, will feature violin star Ray Chen, who delighted the local audience with his April 2024 performance.
CeCe Teneal’s Divas of Soul
8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31
Payne & Mencias Palladium
BHI Senior Living Songbook Series
Take a ride on the “Midnight Train to Georgia” over “River Deep, Mountain High” as award-winning vocalist CeCe Teneal delivers you the “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” you deserve in Divas of Soul, a one-of-a-kind concert event. This spectacular celebration of 50 years of chart-topping music from artists like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Tina Turner and Whitney Houston has wowed audiences worldwide, featuring hits from the disco era (“Ring My Bell,” “Best of My Love”) to Broadway (“And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”) and pop (“What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “I’m Every Woman”).
Other January activities include:
Peanut Butter & Jam: Move & Groove with The Call
10:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 17
The Studio Theater
Tickets: $10 per child, includes two free adult admissions
Indianapolis-based R&B/soul collective The Call, led by singer-songwriter Okara Imani, promises a high-energy music party for families. Designed for ages 1-7, Peanut Butter & Jam sessions engage young children in the joy of live performance.
Local Mix Music Series: Teresa Reynolds and the Slicktones
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22
The Tarkington and online
On-site tickets: $10 (pay-what-you-can, $10 minimum)
Livestream: Free (pay-what-you-can, no minimum)
Formed in 2021, Teresa Reynolds and the Slicktones have performed around Indianapolis and in New York City, where lead singer and songwriter Teresa Reynolds was based for more than 14 years while touring as a backup singer for Gloria Gaynor, singing for Central Park audiences with “That Guitar Man” David Ippolito, and writing and releasing two solo albums. Known for a sound that blends pop, R&B, soul and jazz, the Slicktones are Indianapolis heavy hitters Mina Keohane, Poncho Hedrick, Matthew Dupree and Joshua Ginder.
Luminaries: Choose to Love and the Art of Storytelling
2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27
Payne & Mencias Palladium
Tickets: $10
A motivational comedian and keynote speaker, Kevin Wanzer has been empowering audiences – one laugh at a time – since his sophomore year of high school, sharing his message of love, leadership and laughter. In this presentation, he will share his poem “Choose to Love,” which came to him in a dream one night in the 1990s and was later published. He encourages audiences to embrace love in their careers, relationships and interactions, to embrace the power of humor and diversity, and to discover their hidden passions.
From our Resident Companies:
Actors Theatre of Indiana
Lucky Stiff: Jan. 30 to Feb. 15 at The Studio Theater