Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Benefit concert at ENMU

Eastern New Mexico University will be hosting a free concert at 7p.m. Tuesday in Buchanon Hall of the Music Building. The concert is part of the annual Harmony for Humanity to honor Daniel Pearl.

Pearl was a Wallstreet Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered in 2002 in Pakistan. Pearl was a lover of music, as well as a violinist, fiddler, and mandolin player. The Pearl family established the Daniel Pearl Foundation with the mission to promote cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music, and innovative communications, according to an ENMU press release.

Since 2002, there have been approximately 3,000 performances across 60 different countries in honor of Pearl every year. These concerts use music and art as a unifying force to encourage journalism, music, and dialogue to diminish hate in the world, according to the Harmony for Humanity Web site.

“It is a means to create a dialogue between writers and musicians to create global awareness,” said Tamara Raatz associate professor of music at ENMU

Students, faculty, as well as some members of the community will be performing. These performances include poetry from several cultures, choral music, a wind quintet as well as the handbell choirs from The First United Methodist Church. John Rollinson from St. James Church in Clovis will speak regarding peace.

Raatz is responsible for coordinating the concert and will perform a work titled “I Never Saw a Butterfly” this selection is six songs based on text of children from the Holocaust (Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944), according to an ENMU press release.

“This is a great opportunity for students to become aware of global issues and world events,” said Raatz.

For more information, contact Raatz at 562-2374