ENMU-Ruidoso Community Choir Announces Spring Concert
“The Gospel According to Broadway,” Sunday, May 3
ENMU-Ruidoso’s Community Education 15-member Community Choir will host their Spring Concert performance at ENMU-Ruidoso, Room 201, 709 Mechem Dr., Sunday, May 3, at 3 p.m.
The Community Choir is co-directed by Dr. Samuel Ponder of Ruidoso and Accompanist Anne Speights of Alto. Dr. Samuel Ponder has been a resident of Ruidoso since 2017 and is currently the choral director for the Episcopal Church of Lincoln County and a substitute teacher at Ruidoso High School and Ruidoso Middle School. Dr. Ponder received his graduate degree from Indiana University in 1992 and has spent most of his career teaching instrumental music lessons in Western Massachusetts and upstate New York.
Speights began playing piano at the age of 8 when living in El Paso, Texas, and has been the pianist for several churches in the Dallas area, Woodland Park, Colorado, and presently at the First Christian Church of Ruidoso. She has accompanied many student soloists and musicians for high school competitions, McKinney, Texas, civic chorus, and currently the ENMU-Ruidoso Community Choir. She began playing clarinet in junior high school in Richardson, Texas, where she was in the marching band and concert bands, and the concert band at Dallas Baptist University. She sang in the youth choir at the First Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas. While attending Dallas Baptist University, and studied piano and vocal training and sang with their acappella choir. She sang with The Texas Voices, a professional chamber chorus, in Plano, Texas, while taking vocal lessons with Debra Scroggins, a professional teacher, soloist and composer. She spent one season singing with the Dallas Symphony Chorus.
Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the door, or by calling the College at 575-315-1120. The Choir will feature a blend of Gospel songs and Broadway hits, including: Elijah Rock, Do Lord, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Night and Day, and a Sound of Music sing-along with My Favorite Things and Climb Every Mountain. Pictured in the graphic, front row – left to right: Community Choir Co-Director Dr. Samuel Ponder, Ruidoso; Barbara Severance, Alto; Dolores Chacon, Ruidoso Downs; Susan Finch, El Paso, Texas; Cindy Buenrostro, Lubbock, Texas; Aida Cory, El Paso, Texas; Accompanist and Co-Director Anne Speights, Alto. Back row: Dave Tomlin, Ruidoso; Michael Clements, Ruidoso; Valerie Silva, Alto; Dr. Clara Farah, Alto; Lizzy Gibbs, Ruidoso; Chelsea Ivey, Ruidoso; Delana Clements, Ruidoso; and Adrian “Reck” Orozco, Ruidoso Downs.
The Community Development Office of ENMU-Ruidoso has offered the Community Choir personal enrichment course during the fall and spring semesters for many years, except during COVID-19, when it was suspended. The Community Choir was restarted in the fall of 2023. It is a 16-week community education course that meets on Monday evenings at 5 p.m. at the College. It will be offered again in the fall semester that runs Aug. 18-Dec. 11. To register, visit the Community Education Class Schedule website.
