Monthly Archives: November 2014

The Nutcracker, at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

We’ll be spending the coming weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. We’ll be playing handbell duets in the lobby before the Pacific Ballet Academy’s performances of The Nutcracker.

The Nutcracker - handbell duo

This wonderful ballet performance is always one of the highlights of the holiday season here in Mountain View. It’s an annual tradition for the Pacific Ballet Academy, and we look forward to it every year. We’ll be playing a selection of popular handbell pieces before each of the six performances. You’ll hear our 8-bell Nutcracker duets, as well as many traditional Christmas and holiday carols, all played with just eight bells, in the 4-in-hand style.

This year is the 24th year of these Pacific Ballet Academy performances. There will be two shows each day – at 1:00pm and 6:00pm on Friday, November 28th and Saturday November 29th. Performances on Sunday, November 30th will be at 12:30pm and 4:00pm. Come early to gather with other guests before the shows, and listen to the sweet sound of handbell music to get us all in the mood for this exciting annual holiday tradition!

The Nutcracker - Mountain View

The Pacific Ballet Academy students have been working hard to make this another great season of Nutcracker shows. We hope to see you at one of the performances!

A Snail’s Pace, for 5-8 Octave Handbells

A Snail’s Pace is an original composition. Larry wrote it with a plush orange-pink-and-purple snail in mind. This laid-back jazz piece will challenge you – but you’ll enjoy it!

Thanks to the friendly bunch of folks at Pierpont Productions, we’re able to bring you this video. It was recorded at the Bay View Week of Handbells concert in August 2014.

A Snail’s Pace is written for 5-8 octaves and handbells, plus 5 octaves of handchimes. It’s Level 5+. We think you’ll love playing it!

How to get the sheet music

If you’d like to play this piece, it’s available for purchase and download from Choraegus. Purchasing the choir copy of this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to fifteen copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. You can also buy an individual copy for your personal use only. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Please note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs, so you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!

A Snail's Pace - Larry Sue handbell composition

Happy Thanksgiving from Our Home to Yours!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! This is our third Thanksgiving together since Carla’s big move from England to California in 2012. We survived a long-distance relationship and went through the US visa process together. We were able to get married in 2012, and apply for a Green Card. That card gave Carla permanent residence in the USA. These days, we have a lot to be thankful for!

Life is much easier now that we can celebrate special days like Thanksgiving together. Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday in the U.K, so it was all new to Carla when she moved here in 2012.

We have lots of happy memories from our long-distance relationship. However, it was certainly challenging to be so far away from each other. Special days are hard to celebrate together when there’s an 8-hour time difference between you! Christmas and birthdays were always particularly tricky for us, and we’re doing better now we’re together.

Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating with family and friends. Our family is scattered across the USA and the UK, so it’s a quiet celebration for us. But for everyone who’s celebrating today, we hope your day is full of the blessings of love, family and friendship. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Happy Thanksgiving

Photos from Carla’s Trip to England

Carla recently returned from her trip to England. She was there for a funeral, and to catch up with friends and family. It was also a good opportunity to visit a few towns near to where she used to live, to reminisce and take some photos. These pictures were taken in Windsor, where there are lots of historic buildings, including the castle!

It’s always exciting to be in Windsor at Christmas time. Even the decorations have the royal touch!

A trip to England - Windsor at Christmas

Carla has always enjoyed the walk across the bridge from Windsor to Eton. A trip to England wouldn’t be complete without seeing lots of these red post boxes. We don’t have them in California, so it was worth a photo!

trip to England - red post box

Here’s another photo taken in Windsor, with the castle across the street.

Windsor town and castle

And yay! Lucky cats. We see lots of these in the Bay Area, and have started collecting photos of them! It’s more unusual to see them on a trip to England, but they pop up in tourist areas and souven

lucky cat in Windsor, England

If you’d like to see more of the photos Carla took in England, you can find them on our Facebook page. We hope next time we’ll be able to go there together!

Back Together in California!

After a week apart, we’re back together in California! We were reunited at the airport in San Francisco yesterday. We’re so glad to be back in the same time zone again – especially as we did so badly at staying in touch during our time apart.

Before Carla moved to California, we coped with our long-distance relationship by talking on Skype at crazy hours of the night, and depriving ourselves of sleep. During our week apart, we had a “been there, done that, don’t want to do it again” attitude. We just exchanged a few messages each day, when we had the opportunity. Knowing that the distance was only going to be there for a week helped a lot!

Back together in California
Yay! Together at the airport!


Now we’re happy to be back together in the same time zone. We’re ready to get back into rehearsing for the run-up to the holiday season. Our next performance will be at a Thanksgiving Dinner for international, veterans, EOPS, homeless and out-of-state students at Foothill College, Los Altos on Tuesday evening.

Would you like to book us to play handbells at your holiday event?

You still have time to book us to play duets at your Christmas or holiday event. Take a look at our videos, and contact us if you’d like to find out more!

Back to Long Distance for a Week!

We’re going back to long distance… but not for long.

Carla’s traveling back to England today, to attend a funeral. It’s a sad time, and we’ll be back to our old 8-hour time difference for the coming week. We’ll miss each other, of course. On the plus side, though, Carla will be glad to re-connect with family and friends back in the UK. While she’s away, we’ll be making the most of Facebook and Skype to stay in close contact, just like long-distance couples all over the world.

Back to long distance

Larry’s face looks sad in the photo, but we’re not really making a fuss about this. We’ve already survived nearly three years in a long-distance relationship, before we got the K-1 fiancée visa and Carla moved from the UK to California. A week apart is nothing compared to the time many couples spend waiting to close the distance. Carla will be busy with funeral things, and seeing friends and family – and for her, the time will probably go far too quickly. Larry will have plenty to do at home in California while Carla’s away. In just a few days’ time, he’ll be driving back to the airport. No problem… right? We can do this!

New Handbell Music – Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella – for 8 Bells

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella is a very pretty French carol, originally written in the 16th century.  Here’s our 8-bell arrangement:

If you’d like to play Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

More information about this music

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Please note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella - handbells

It’s Not Too Late to Sign Up for Redding Bronze!

There’s still time to sign up for the Redding Bronze handbell event, which takes place over the weekend of January 30th and 31st, 2015. Handbell musicians will gather to form northern California’s premier handbell ensemble. We’ll prepare music in advance, then gather together that weekend to rehearse and put the finishing touches to the music. Then we’ll perform a public concert at First Presbyterian Church in Redding. Larry is looking forward to being the guest director for this event!

We’re excited about the repertoire for Redding Bronze. The concert will include such favorites as Michael Joy’s lively Dorian Dance and Lee Afdahl’s beautiful arrangement of Beach Spring. Take a look at the Facebook event page for more details – and sign up for Redding Bronze soon. Spaces are limited, so don’t delay!

There is no charge to attend the Redding Bronze concert on Saturday, January 31st. Donations are gratefully received, to help with the cost of this event.

sign up for Redding Bronze

Any questions?

If you have any questions about this event, we’ll be happy to help. If we don’t have the information you need, we can put you in touch with someone else who can help. Contact us and let us know what information you need!

Welcome to our New Website!

Welcome to our new website – larryandcarla.com!

We hope this website will be a helpful alternative to our music site. Apart from being easier to remember and spell (courageous? choragus? choreagus?), it will be a place to find more information about booking us for handbell performances. As a former long-distance couple, we’ll also share news about our life together now that we’re married and living in the same place. We’ll post our thoughts about how to survive a long-distance relationship, and getting through the U.S. visa application process.

This website will also have more purple.

our new website - larry and carla

We’ll continue to publish our handbell and choral music on our Choraegus site; nothing will change there. This new site will be an additional way for us to connect with the world! We’ll still have our Facebook page too, and you’re welcome to connect with us there. You can share your own long-distance relationship story, or ask us questions. We also love to hear from other handbell musicians about what you’re currently working on. If your handbell choir has played one if Larry’s arrangements, we’d love to see a video of your performance!

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our new website, or our music site, please contact us!