SIMPLY THE BEST: The Music of Tina Turner
SEPTEMBER, JULY 19 & 20, 2025 | 8:00PM
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Tamika Lawrence, vocalist
Shaleah Adkisson, vocalist
Scott Coulter, vocalist
John Boswell, piano
All hail the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Tina Turner’s singular voice provided the soundtrack of a generation and her story inspired hearts and minds around the world. With a career including 12 Grammy wins and more than 100 million records sold worldwide, she was simply “better than all the rest.” Join the Columbus Symphony for a tour of Turner’s iconic musical legacy featuring hits like “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “Better Be Good to Me” and more!
TONIGHTS SELECTIONS WILL BE ANNOUNCED FROM THE STAGE
Tamika Lawrence
Hailing from the Mount Hope neighborhood of the Bronx, two-time Grammy Award winner Tamika Lawrence began her musical career on Broadway almost 10 years ago and has starred in The Wiz Live! on NBC, Book of Mormon, Come from Away, RENT, Caroline, or Change (2022 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical) and the world premiere of Black No More (2022 Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical).
She most recently starred in Broadway's The Heart of Rock and Roll (2024 Best Featured Performance in a Musical/BroadwayWorld). Lawrence regularly lends her alt-rock vocals to movie soundtracks and has sung background vocals for artists including Hugh Jackman and Idina Menzel. A cross between Jack White and Bette Davis, Lawrence writes her own music and, in 2014, released the album Ugly with her band Tamika & The Slay to critical acclaim. Lawrence won a Grammy for her work on the Dear Evan Hansen cast album and won her second Grammy for her work on The Greatest Showman. Her critically acclaimed debut solo EP Two Faced was released in 2020.
Shaleah Adkisson
Shaleah Adkisson is a singer and actress who has been delighting audiences across the country for the last 18 years. She’s been seen on Broadway and on tour in Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical and as Joanne in the off-Broadway revival of Rent. Other theatrical credits include Clybourne Park, Avenue Q, The Hot Mikado, Beehive: The 60's Musical, Ain't Misbehavin, Grease, Nunsense and Children of Eden. Since 2013, she has performed around the country with the dynamic all-female tribute shows Back to the Garden (tributes to Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Laura Nyro) and August 1969: A Tribute to the Women of Woodstock.
When not on stage, Adkisson works at New York City Center theater in the Education and Community Engagement department managing their in-school theater and dance programs. She dedicates this performance to her superhero husband, Jose, and her sweet baby boy, Lucas.
Scott Coulter
Scott Coulter is one of New York's most honored vocalists, having received five MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five Bistro Awards and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist. He's performed at most of NYC’s top rooms, including Birdland, 54 Below, The Oak Room at the Algonquin and Feinstein’s at The Regency, where he spent a record-setting eight months performing the revue 11 O’Clock Numbers at 11 O’Clock, which he also co-created, directed and musically arranged. His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by TheatreMania and Cabaret Scenes magazines. Coulter was director and star of A Christmas Carol: The Symphonic Concert in its world premiere with the Baltimore Symphony and reprised his performance in the Emmy-nominated PBS production. He is an Emmy nominee himself for his performance in American Song at NJPAC and a Grammy nominee as a featured vocalist on the album Sondheim Unplugged: The NYC Sessions. Coulter regularly performs in concert both as a solo artist and with a variety of legendary performers including Sheena Easton and Academy Award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz. Schwartz has said “One of the greatest things that can happen to a composer is to have his music interpreted by Scott Coulter.”
Coulter is creator, arranger and director of several touring shows (symphonic and non-) including Music of the Knights, The Wonderful Music of Oz, Blockbuster Broadway!, and, for The ASCAP Foundation, Jerry Herman: The Broadway Legacy Concert. Along with Michael Kerker and ASCAP, he's a regular producer/director of Michael Feinstein's Standard Time at Carnegie Hall. Coulter recently wrote the book for the new musical Got to Be There, which celebrates the life and music of songwriter Elliot Willensky. Coulter, along with Dave Gaebler, is a co-producer of the Jessica Hendy/Brianna Barnes musical Walking With Bubbles, which received a 2023 Drama Desk Award nomination and won an off-Broadway Alliance Award. The show's cast album is produced by Coulter and Vibecke Dahle Dellapolla. Coulter and Gaebler are also on the producing teams of the Broadway musicals Water for Elephants and Suffs (Tony Award winner for Best Book of a Musical and Best Score).
Coulter is founder/owner of Spot-On Entertainment and Spot-On Arts Academy and is a resident director of programming at 54 Below (Broadway’s Supper Club) in NYC. He is the artistic director of the Pocono Mountains Music Festival and founder of the Pocono Pops! Coulter is a proud graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), which honored him with the Young Alumni Award in 2010 and the Distinguished Service Award in 2020.
John Boswell
John Boswell has served as musical director for Judy Collins, Andy Williams, Bob Newhart, Scott Coulter, Maude Maggart, Faith Prince, Carmen Cusack, Babbie Green, Jason Graae and a host of other fine talents. He played the role of “Moose” in the national tour of Crazy for You and has appeared on The Tonight Show, Today, CBS This Morning, Regis and Kathie Lee and General Hospital and was the piano playing hands of Nancy McKeon on the sitcom The Facts of Life. Recent concerts with symphony orchestras have included Jerry Herman: The Broadway Legacy Concert, Blockbuster Broadway!, Sheena Easton and Scott Coulter: The Spy Who Loved Me and Music of the Knights. Boswell has been heard singing in the shows Three Men and a Baby…Grand, Cinema Toast, Broadway Today, Wiseguys and the New York cult hit Cashino. Broadway/off-Broadway credits include Crazy for You, The Secret Garden, LIZA! Steppin' Out at Radio City Music Hall, Back to Bacharach and David and The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives. His monthly concerts in 2017 at The Gardenia in Los Angeles were crowd pleasers. Boswell has eight CDs of original piano music and a ninth on the way. While a student at UCLA, he received the Frank Sinatra Award for popular instrumentalists.