ENTERTAINMENT NOTES

’Sing Noel’ at St. Luke’s; Sesame Street returns

Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic shows are at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at North Little Rock’ s Verizon Arena.
Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic shows are at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at North Little Rock’ s Verizon Arena.

Pianist Julie Cheek and violinist Andrew Irvin, members of ARmusica, with students Alana Duvall, Erin Davis, Harry Lance, Harmony Skinner and Caleb Yu, will perform for a program called “Sing Noel,” 7 p.m. Tuesday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 4106 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock.

The program will include Snow, a duet for piano and violin by Duvall, plus traditional carols and works by Georg Philipp Telemann and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The concert is part of the church’s Festival of the Senses. A reception with food and wine will follow in the parish hall.

Admission is free. Call (501) 753-4281 or (501) 753-3578 or visit the website, stlukeepiscopal.org .

Street magic

Elmo teams up with Abby and master magician Justin to discover the “power of yet” — that with perseverance and practice, nothing can stand between you and your dream — in Sesame Street Live! Make Your Magic, 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at North Little Rock’ s Verizon Arena. Tickets are $21.50-$51.50 (plus service charges. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit Ticketmaster.com.

King’s Singers

A cappella sextet The King’s Singers (Patrick Dunachie and Timothy Wayne-Wright, countertenors; Julian Gregory, tenor; Christopher Bruerton and Christopher Gabbitas, baritones; and Jonathan Howard, bass), on their 2018 North American Christmas tour, perform at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St.

The program, “Gold Christmas,” marks the ensemble’s 50th birthday with music that has defined the group’s first half century, new commissions from their three-disc anniversary album, Gold, and a selection of sacred and secular Christmas music. Tickets are $12-$42. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.

‘SoNA Christmas’

Jazz singer Genine LaTrice Perez will join the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, the SoNA Singers, the Bentonville High School Chamber Choir, the University of Arkansas Schola Cantorum and conductor Paul Haas for “A Very SoNA Christmas,” 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Baum Walker Hall at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St. Tickets are $32-$55.

The orchestra will also perform at 2 p.m. Dec. 16 at Walton Arts Center for “The Snowman: A Family Concert,” playing the orchestral score live underneath the annual screening of the Academy Award-nominated animated children’s film. Tickets are $9.

Call (479) 443-5600 or visit sonamusic.org.

Steam-y concerts

Mannheim Steamroller returns to Fort Smith for concerts 3 and 7:30 p.m. today at the ArcBest Corp. Performing Arts Center, 55 S. Seventh St. The concerts are part of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s Season of Entertainment 38. Tickets are $53 and $55. Call (479) 788-7300 or visit tickets.uafs.edu.

Fort Smith Lauderdale

Grammy-winning country singer/songwriter/sideman Jim Lauderdale performs, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 801 Media Center at 5 Star Productions, 801 N. A St., Fort Smith, part of the Artist, Audience & Community Live! series. Tickets are $40; visit AACLive.com.

Annual Pageant

As it does every Christmas, Arkansas Public Theatre will stage The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 23 at the Victory Theater, 116 S. Second St., Rogers. Doors and concessions open one hour before curtain, Cabaret seats are $29, $48 for a table (seats two); $22 in the balcony. Call (479) 631-8988 or visit arkansaspublictheatre.org .

The theater is also holding auditions at 7 p.m. Dec. 17 for Jesus Christ Superstar (music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice) at the Victory Theater. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Auditions will be based upon readings from the script, singing and a dance combination. An audition packet, including audition times, scenes, character descriptions and a rehearsal schedule, is available for download at arkansaspublictheatre.org . Callbacks, if necessary, will take place Dec. 18. Production dates are Feb. 8-10, 14-17 and 21-24.

Bluegrass Christmas

Nontraditional bluegrass band Roots Tour — guitarist Asher Perkins and resophonic guitar player Sean Essary, plus Northwest Arkansas-based country singer Tori Miller — will offer “A Bluegrass Christmas,” 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Fenix Fayetteville Artists Collective, 16 W. Center St., Fayetteville. It’s part of the Sonic Images Musical Series. Admission is $10. Visit fenixfayettevilleart.com .

Rogers reopening

The Rogers Historical Museum, 313 S. Second St., Rogers, will hold its grand reopening, 11 a.m. Thursday, following expansion into and renovations to the former Newt Hailey Ford dealership building. That includes five new gallery spaces, a newly enlarged classroom space in what had been the museum’s galleries, an expanded reading area, an enlarged research library, room for special events, community gathering space and state-of-the-art storage space. Museum hours, starting Thursday, are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Call (479) 621-1154 or visit rogershistoricalmuseum.org .

photo

ARmusica’s Julie Cheek, piano, and Andrew Irvin, violin, headline a concert called “Sing Noel” Tuesday at North Little Rock’s St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

photo

Grammy-winning country musician Jim Lauderdale performs Wednesday in Fort Smith.

photo

Country singer Tori Miller joins bluegrass band Roots Tour, co-founded by guitarist Asher Perkins (right), Wednesday at the Fenix Fayetteville Artists Collective.

photo

Jazz singer Genine LaTrice Perez joins the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas for “A Very SoNA Christmas” Saturday in Fayetteville.

Upcoming Events