LeAnn Rimes, Irish band on the bill at Walton Center
Grammy Award-winning singer LeAnn Rimes performs hits, past and current, plus traditional and original seasonal songs from her trio of Christmas albums in her “Today Is Christmas” concert tour, 7 p.m. Tuesday at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St.
Tickets are $45-$75. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.
Also at Walton Arts Center this week:
Traditional Irish ensemble Danu — its members hailing from Waterford, Dublin, Donegal and Cork counties — will perform A Christmas Gathering: “Feile na Nollag,” 7 p.m. today. The concert will also feature the Link Ensemble, a 16-member professional vocal ensemble based in Northwest Arkansas, and Rince Arkansas Academy of Irish Dance. Tickets are $15$30.
Pianist Jonathan Story; his wife, jazz singer Kara Story; and the 80-voice University of Arkansas Children’s Choir go “Home for the Holidays,” 7 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $25-$30.
And the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas will celebrate the season with three concerts in Walton Arts Center’s Baum Walker Hall (sonamusic.org):
“A Very SoNA Christmas,” 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, with cello soloist Michael Tynes (playing the first movement, “Allegro non troppo,” of Camille Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in a minor), the SoNA Singers, Bentonville High School Chamber Choir, Har-Ber High School Camerata Singers and University of Arkansas Schola Cantorum.
The program includes Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, parts of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and carols, spirituals and
sacred and secular seasonal songs. Paul Haas conducts. Tickets are $30-$52. The Snowman: A Family
Concert, 2 p.m. Dec. 17. The orchestra plays the soundtrack live as the animated film screens. Tickets are $9.
Meanwhile, the center is accepting, through Jan. 31, audition videos for VoiceJam, its annual a cappella festival, April 6-7. Any a cappella group of three or more can audition. Registration, competition criteria, submission information and festival details are available online at waltonartscenter.org/voicejamcompete. Up to eight groups can take part; finalists will be announced Feb. 3.
Come, Emmanuel
Grammy-winning guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, on his “Classics & Christmas Tour,” headlines at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. The show will feature a full set of his solo acoustic songs and a full set of Christmas favorites with Pat Bergeson, John Knowles CGP and Annie Sellick. Tickets are $50 and $30. Visit aetnfoundation.org/donate/ boxoffice.
WAB Nutcracker
Western Arkansas Ballet will put on its 32nd annual performance of P.I. Tchaikovsky’s
The Nutcracker, with Taylor Sambola as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Arcadian Broad as her Cavalier (both members of Orlando Ballet Company) and a cast of more than 100 local children and adults, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at the ArcBest Corp. Performing Arts Center, 55 S. Seventh St., Fort Smith. Tickets are $25, $15 for children and students (the latter with a valid ID). Call (479) 785-0152 or visit waballet.org.
Architecture lecture
StudioMAIN, a nonprofit whose purpose is to engage communities in the opportunities and issues pertaining to the collaborative process of design and construction of the built environment, will present “Engaging Community: Educate. Advocate. Collaborate,” 6 p.m. Tuesday in the lecture hall, lower level, Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Park, 503 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. It’s part of the Architecture and Design Network’s 2017-18 June Freeman Lecture Series; a reception precedes the lecture at 5:30. Admission is free.
Support for the series comes from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and the Central Section of the Arkansas chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Admission is free. Call (501) 367-2216.
Christmas for kids
ARmusica musicians — Julie Cheek, piano, and Andrew Irvin, violin, plus violinists Erin Davis, Harry Lance, Gail Oudekirk, Harmony Skinner and Caleb Yu — will offer a program titled “Christmas Is for Children,” 7 p.m. Tuesday in the sanctuary of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 4106 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock. The program will include Jascha Heifetz’s arrangement of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”;
Ballade by George Enescu; and a collection of Christmas carols. A meet-the-artists reception will follow. The concert is part of the church’s St. Luke’s Festival of the Senses. Admission is free. Call (501) 753-4281.
Cirque-style journey
A young girl’s journey from childhood to young adulthood, through mental illness, relationships and suicide attempts is the basis for Fort Smith-based Andmore Theatre Company’s cirque-style
Animoria, 7 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Dec. 17 at the New Theatre, 11 N. 10th St., Fort Smith. The company rates the show PG-13 for drug usage, violence and adult themes.
Admission is $8, $7 for students. Proceeds will go toward the creation of the David Bates Memorial Foundation for Mental Health in the Arts, named for a cast member who committed suicide in December 2015. Call (479) 310-3195, email andmoreproductioncompany@gmail.com or visit facebook.com/AndmoreProductionCompany.
Swing at museum
The 19-piece JM Band of Northwest Arkansas, featuring Susan Wizer on vocals and Scott Harris on trumpet, will play big band swing favorites, 8-11 p.m. Friday in the Great Hall, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, in conjunction with the museum’s “Stuart Davis: In Full Swing” exhibition. Admission is free but limited; register by calling (479) 657-2335 or visit crystalbridges.org.