Posted by Phillip Poole on 2007-09-09

Organist Ken Varner, a composer and arranger of majestic hymns of the church, has been added to the Old Song Sing-Along program Sunday, Sept. 23 at Samford University in Birmingham.

The 2 p.m. event will be in Reid Chapel on Samford's campus. It is free and open to the public.

Varner will be joining returning Concert Pianist Barbara Bamberg of Houston, Texas, according to Dean Joseph Hopkins of Samford's School of the Arts, who will direct the annual event. Both musicians have produced collections of great hymn and gospel music arrangements.

Varner is church organist/music assistant at First Baptist Church in Simpsonville, S.C. Since fall 2003, he has also served as an adjunct instructor in church music at North Greenville University in Tigerville, S.C.

Bamberg, who was featured on the program last year, serves on the staff of Saint Luke's United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. Previously, she was music associate/pianist/children's choir coordinator for First United Methodist Church, Houston; staff accompanist at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, and Houston Baptist University; and was on the staffs of First Baptist and Second Baptist churches in Houston and Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

The Old Song Sing-Along program features audience participation in the selection and singing of hymns and gospel music.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.