Popovich Comedy Pet Theater performs on Friday, Sept. 20

Musicians and performers from around the world will travel to Socorro to sing, dance, act, and play their instruments for students, faculty and staff, and community members. The New Mexico Tech Performing Arts Series 2024-2025 season will feature many internationally known performers while welcoming back many local favorites. The full array of theatrical and musical performances, special events, and community celebrations is sure to delight all who attend.

A full schedule of NMTPAS 2024-2025 events and ticket information is available online at: nmt.edu/pas. Most Macey Center performances are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors age 65 and older, $8 for youth under age 18, and free of charge for NMT students who show a Tech ID. Season tickets are now available, and subscribers save 25% off tickets for the entire year. Special pre-show events are an additional charge.

Dana Chavez-Baca, PAS director, said the schedule showcases a variety of phenomenal performers.

“We’re going to have a lot of fun this year,” she said. “We’re seriously excited for the performances, pre-show and special events.

Chavez-Baca said PAS attendees will notice that the four-part chamber music series name changed – from Presidential Music Series to Presidential Chamber and World Music Series.

“The change reflects that we’re hosting more chamber music from around the world,” she said. “Every culture has its own chamber music.”

Community Events
The first event kicking off the 2024-2025 PAS season is the popular SocorroFest, a two-day free community celebration, held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13 and 14 in Socorro’s Historic Plaza. This year’s headliner is “512: The Selena Experience,” a tribute to Selena, known as the Queen of Tejano Music. Local and regional bands and individual musicians will perform on multiple stages. The event, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13, and noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, also will include arts vendors, food booths, and a spirits tent.

512: The Selena Experience--a tribute to the Queen of Tejano Music

Other community events during the 2024-25 season include the Women’s Arts Showcase during the month of March in conjunction with Women’s History Month; performances starring Socorro youth in NDI “Dream Big!” Nov. 21 and with Missoula Children’s Theater in June 2025; and the annual Fourth of July Celebration featuring New Mexico musical performers, games, vendors, and super-spectacular fireworks choreographed by NMT’s Energetic Materials Research and Training Center (EMRTC). As well as the annual Community Arts Party, February 8 2025, a volunteer ran event featuring arts and crafts projects for all ages!

Special Events
Special events are planned throughout the 2024-2025 season to engage and entertain the community. NMTPAS teams up with Macey Center and NMT clubs to create fun events, including:

• Friday, Oct. 4: Grab a paintbrush for the PAS Macey Club (PM Club) Canvas & Cocktails. Open to beginners as well as experienced painters, the evening will feature food, fun, and expert instruction by Macey Center assistant director, Angela Magoffe.
• Saturday, Oct. 26: Attendees will have the opportunity to dress up, play games, make crafts, and visit vendors at the Magical Medieval Fayre, prior to that evening’s “Macbeth” performance (tickets sold separately).
• Friday, Dec. 6: A Christmas season sale, La Venta de Navidad, will feature local arts and crafts vendors and traditional yummy eats.
• Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025: PM Club Comedy Night brings the nightclub laughs to the Macey Center stage.
• Friday, March 7, 2025: PM Club Let’s Taste Wine! Sommelier Showdown with Maria Montero, sample delicious wines with friends.
• Friday, May 2, 2025: The annual Tacos & Tequila evening features Mexican cuisine and the game Loteria to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and kick off the summer season.

Presidential Chamber and World Music Series
The Presidential Chamber and World Music Series, sponsored by New Mexico Tech President Mahyar Amouzegar, features four free concerts for students, faculty, community members, and their families:

• Thursday, Oct. 10: Alejandro Brittes Trio, featuring the Argentine accordion player accompanied by performers playing a seven-string guitar and double bass.
• Wednesday, Nov. 6: WOR Band Belgium, five musicians whose contemporary arrangements inject new energy into 18th-century melodies from the Flanders region of Belgium.
• Friday, Jan. 24, 2025: Eric Sewell’s Nomad Ensemble with stellar New Mexico musicians featuring the piano, violin, and cello.
• Thursday, April 17, 2025: Camerata Del Sol, a string quartet drawing together performers from Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Juárez to bring unique chamber music experiences to the region.

PAS Subscription Series

The regular NMT PAS subscription series begins in September and runs through April 2025. Several pre-show events throughout the year are connected to the performances. The first event in the subscription series is “Popovich Comedy Pet Theater,” Friday, Sept. 20. Chavez-Baca said the comedy-variety show will feature more than 40 rescue animals, including a mini pig.

“It will be their fourth visit to Socorro, and we’re excited to welcome them back,” she said. “It’s a super cute show!”

Other NMTPAS performances include:

• Socorro Community Theater’s “Macbeth,” the classic Shakespearean tragedy, will be presented Friday, Oct. 25, Saturday, Oct. 26, and on Sunday, Oct. 27, at a 2 p.m. matinee.
• “Pamyua,” a quartet that showcases Inuit culture though music and dance performance, will perform Friday, Nov. 15.
• “Mariachi Christmas” will return Friday, Dec. 6, for a colorful seasonal showcase of ballet, folkorico dance, and mariachi music, a genre of regional Mexican music, to the Macey Center stage.
• Mamadou Diabate, a storyteller and musician originally from Burkina Faso in West Africa, brings his group, Percussion Mania, for an evening of pulsating melodies on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
• String music fans are in luck, as International Guitar Night is coming to Socorro Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. The world’s premier touring guitar festival brings together innovative acoustic guitarists from Germany, Britain and the Republic of the Congo.
• Experience Ukranian folk rock when Yagody takes the stage Friday, March 28, 2025. The ensemble consists of three vocalists, an accordionist, a bass guitarist, a drummer, and a cymbalist.
• Three performances of “Anything Goes,” the weekend of April 4-6, 2025, from the NMT’s Department of Communication, Liberal Arts, and Social Sciences (CLASS) and the Socorro Community Theater, will feature the music and lyrics of Cole Porter.
• Feel the resonating beats of TAIKOPROJECT, returning to Socorro April 11, 2025 bringing a tsunami of sound and the rich cultural heritage of Japanese drumming.

TAIKO PROJECT

Chavez-Baca exclaims, “this year PAS is quite literally bringing a world of entertainment to Socorro.”

NMTPAS receives support from New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs; Western States Arts Federation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Socorro, and is underwritten by NMT. For performance and ticket information or to volunteer, visit nmt.edu/pas or call 575-835-5688.