Posted by Mary Wimberley on 2008-03-05

The Samford University A Cappella Choir will perform in Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium Tuesday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m.

"Samford at the Ryman" will conclude a three-state spring performance tour for the 56-member choir. Tickets are $25 and are available at www.ryman.com or by calling (205) 726-2486.

The choir will be joined in the Nashville concert by guest artist Bobby Horton, a popular performer of Civil War music and specialist in American folk music. Horton provided music for noted film producer Ken Burns' projects including "The Civil War," and "Baseball.

Horton, a Samford graduate, will perform solo and also join the choir in the American folk song, "Cindy."

The choir's program of diverse choral literature and styles will also include works by Samuel Barber, John Rutter and J.S. Bach, as well as arrangements of hymns and spirituals.

The Nashville concert concludes a concert tour that includes churches and schools in Huntsville, Ala., Knoxville, Tenn., and Danville, Bardstown and Louisville in Kentucky.

The Samford A Cappella Choir is recognized nationally and internationally for choral excellence through its annual U.S. tours and frequent tours in Europe and Asia. The 2007 season included concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Ga., as well as at churches and concert halls throughout the Southeast. A Cathedral residency tour of England included concerts in London and Cambridge.

The choir is conducted by Dr. Timothy Banks, professor of choral music and conducting in the Samford School of Performing Arts. A Samford graduate and former member of the A Cappella Choir as an undergraduate, Banks holds graduate conducting degrees from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He is Alabama's state president-elect of the American Choral Director's Association.

 
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.