Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

ENMU choir to host fundraiser dinner

STAFF REPORT

PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico University choirs will soon be hosting an intimate event in a unique venue to help raise money for upcoming trips.

According to ENMU Director of Choral Activities Jason Paulk, the choirs will be holding a dinner at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 3 in the First Baptist Church fellowship hall, followed by a concert at 7 p.m. at the church’s worship center.

The dinner, Paulk said, will be catered by chef Jude Uerling of Clovis, and will include airline chicken with Beurre Blanc, wild rice and mushroom pilaf, and apple dumplings with cinnamon sauce.

Paulk noted that, while the dinner will cost $25 to attend, the 7 p.m. concert is free.

“It’s a free concert, but we’ll be taking a free-will offering to let people help with some fundraising,” he said, adding that proceeds from the event will fund choir trips to London and Paris in the spring. “We’ve been working really hard to try to raise enough to offset everybody’s trip by about $1,000. We’re about 75 percent of the way there, and we’re really hoping this will get us closer to our goal.”

According to Paulk, ENMU’s three choral ensembles — the University Singers, the Chamber Singers and the Swanee Singers — will be performing everything from songs by rock band The Beatles to High Renaissance Motets, as well as “a good mix of holiday music that will help them get ready for the Christmas season.”

Paulk said that the dinner and concert is a prime opportunity for the many ENMU choir supporters in Portales to help the students reach their goals.

“We know that they want to help our students with their fundraising efforts to get to London and Paris, and this is a really nice way to do that and enjoy an incredible meal and an awesome concert,” he said, “in a venue they don’t often get to hear the choir sing in, at First Baptist Church. I think it will be a really wonderful evening of community building all around.”

To purchase tickets for the 5:30 dinner, contact Kathy Fraze at 575-562-2377.