VALLEY- Last Wednesday, the Valley Kiwanis Club held its annual Christmas meeting at the Langdale United Methodist Church in Valley. Gary Harris, who serves as the minister of music for LUMC, treated Kiwanians to a Christmas concert as he played piano, and multiple brass instruments including trumpet, cornet, and flugelhorn to Christmas classics such as “Jingle Bells”, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” “Frosty the Snowman.”
Harris spoke on his love for music which he gained at an early age, and the different styles of music he has played over the years.
Harris, who currently helps out with the Pride of the Valley marching band, has quite the musical resume. He is the former band director at Cleburne County High School, where he held that title for 25 years as well as at Donoho School in Anniston for eight years. Fortunately for us, fate stepped in and he landed in Valley.
“My wife Linda grew up in Langdale, where the pastor at Langdale Methodist at the time, Roger Thompson, contacted me in 2008 to tell me they needed a minister of music, and after a lot of prayers I accepted”, said Harris.
As the Valley Kiwanians joined him in song, Harris closed the program on the flugelhorn with “The Christmas Song.