"Wine, Dine, and Jazz"
on March 6 at Castor Cellars

The Cuesta College Chamber Singers and Vocé want to go to Europe. You can help them get there and have a great time in the process, thanks to “Wine, Dine, and Jazz,” a fundraising event that features a dinner, auction and live music scheduled 12 to 3 p.m., Sunday, March 6 at Castoro Cellars winery in Templeton.

The “Wine, Dine, and Jazz” Dinner and Auction is part of the Performing Arts Division’s “Europe for a Song” fundraising campaign. The Cuesta Chamber Singers and Vocé need to raise $41,000 in order to travel to Europe for performances at several prestigious festivals, including the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The Cuesta Chamber Singers will perform throughout central Europe on a two-week tour, including performances in Vienna, Prague, Innsbruck, Montreux, and Munich. All of the members of Vocé sing in the Chamber Singers.

This will be the first time that the Chamber Singers have toured in Europe, and just in time for their 10th Anniversary! The Chamber Singers are especially talented this year and will measure up to the best European choirs, showcasing America’s outstanding American classical and Broadway composers. Vocé will continue a tradition of European festival performances, this being their eighth invitation in the past 20 years.

Vocé has consistently been one of the most recognized vocal jazz groups in the state for the last 20 years. This year, the group received the highest honor from the 18,000-member American Choral Directors Association: they are among three vocal jazz groups invited to perform at this month’s National Convention in Los Angeles. “It’s one of the most exacting selection processes I know of,” says director John Knutson. “Ensemble directors have to submit three years worth of concert recordings and the corresponding printed programs and they all have to be from the same school. I had to wait until my fourth year at Cuesta to even have enough years of recordings built up. I can’t believe we got invited on our first try.”

This is a unique opportunity for these outstanding students to experience a cultural exchange.  Twenty-five Cuesta students will be performing in the Chamber Singers in Europe. The total cost of the trip is $3,300 per student. Students will pay half out of their own pockets, and need to fundraise half of the cost. The fundraising campaign started in October, and they have already raised $15,000.

The afternoon promises to be filled with quality performances, and a very exciting live auction run by Gil Stork, a locally popular fundraising auctioneer. Cuesta students will provide the live jazz entertainment, playing from noon to 2:30 p.m. as the meal is served. The live auction is scheduled to begin immediately after.

Tickets for the even must be purchased in advance, and are $25 per person and $40 per couple. For more information, contact Cuesta College Performing Arts at ext. 3195.