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Former Samford Performing Arts Dean Milburn Price Joins MC Music Department


Dr. Milburn Price, former Samford University School of Performing Arts Dean, joins MC Music Department faculty as visiting professor.

Former Samford University performing arts dean Milburn Price will serve as the visiting professor of choral activities and voice at Mississippi College.

Dr. Price will play a prominent role in the Music Department as director of the award-winning Mississippi College Singers for the 2014-15 academic year that begins in August.

“He brings wisdom and extraordinary experience in his art with an inspiring and energetic spirit,” said Angie Willoughby, chair of the MC Music Department. “Our students will have an incredible opportunity to learn and perform with someone like Dr. Price. It will be an unforgettable year.”

One of America’s best respected church music leaders, Dr. Price was dean of the School of Performing Arts at Samford in Birmingham, Alabama from 1993 until 2006. He previously served for a dozen years as dean of the School of Church Music at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

A tennis enthusiast, Price played the sport during his four undergraduate years at the University of Mississippi. He later won state tennis titles in four states.

Dr. Price is a former national president of the American Choral Directors Association (in 1999-2001), and recently completed two years as a visiting professor at Stetson University in Florida and Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.

As a visiting professor, Price will step in following the departure of former MC Music Department Chairman Jamie Meaders. An MC graduate, Meaders was part of the MC Singers as an undergraduate during the group’s first Festival of Lights Christmas concerts in 1986.

Meaders departed as a music professor earlier this year to take a position in New York City. He helped bring national prominence to the MC Singers as its director, including concerts at Carnegie Hall, Europe and South Africa in recent years.

Mississippi College Music Department leaders are expected to conduct a national search for a permanent successor to Meaders, while Price serves on the Clinton campus.