It’s been a while since we played handbell duets for an audience; in fact, we haven’t done that since February! Our handbell duet performance in Decatur gave us a chance to visit a new place, and to meet the friendly women of First Presbyterian Church. What a warm welcome they gave us!
The event was a Mother’s Day tea, and we played a variety of hymns and traditional melodies for an enthusiastic and appreciative audience in this small sanctuary. It was an ideal performance space for a small handbell ensemble, and the sound carried surprisingly well, even without amplification.
The 8-bell arrangements we played included Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Greensleeves/What Child Is This, Amazing Grace, Lucerna Laudoniae, To God Be the Glory, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, The Gift of Love(The Water is Wide), and Sakura. We also played our fun arrangement of Chopsticks, and demonstrated our handchimes by using them to play Ma Navu.
All the above arrangements are available to purchase from our music site, Choraegus.
During our handbell performance, we gave the audience the opportunity to ask questions. They came up with some interesting ones! We talked about how we met, how often we rehearse, and about Larry’s experience with ringing bass handbells. We also talked about the Kalamazoo Ringers concert coming up on May 21st in Kalamazoo, and encouraged people to go along and see bass chimes taller than Larry!
After the performance, we all went downstairs and enjoyed a reception with coffee and cookies. We received a kind gift of a little glass rooster and some lovely flowers to take home with us.
Our thanks go to the women of First Presbyterian Church for inviting us to give this handbell performance in Decatur. We hope to be back to see you all again someday!
Christmas Day has been and gone, but we’re determined to celebrate the full twelve days of Christmas. We’re at the blissful stage of the year when we can finally take a break, catch our breath, and relax after a busy month of holiday handbell performances!
The holiday season is always our favorite time of year. We get the chance to go out and share our Christmas handbell music, meet new people, and visit new places. We were fortunate that the recent snowy-blizzard weather waited until the second half of December to hit West Michigan, so we didn’t have to make any long drives in bad conditions. It’s always a risk when we arrange our holiday performance schedule, because we all know how unpredictable Michigan winter weather can be! Having said that, we’ve lived in Michigan since 2016, so we’re more used to driving through the snow now. Remember when we drove six hours a day for Larry’s radiation treatment in the winter of 2021? If we can survive that, we can survive anything!
Our 2022 holiday performances
Our 2022 holiday performance season began early this year, on November 19th, with our first of three performances at the Kerstmarkt. This Christmas market in Downtown Holland is always a highlight of our holiday season, but this year was a bit different! The opening day of the Kerstmarkt arrived on a day when snow was falling, and the temperature was… well, chilly, to say the least. Still, we’ve never cancelled a performance yet, so we were determined that this one would go ahead. We still managed to have fun, and we admired the courage of anyone who came out to shop in such terrible weather!
Handbells in the snow
For anyone worrying about our handbells and how they cope with extreme cold, we did take some precautions. We took the bells out into the garage a couple of hours before the performance, so that they’d get used to the drop in temperature gradually. We also didn’t play them too loudly when we got to the event. When we play in the cold, we always notice the change in the way the bells sound, so we don’t put any undue strain on them. There are some bells that really, really don’t like the cold, and they simply refuse to play, so we generally leave everything higher than G6 in the case, and don’t play any pieces that involve any “unhappy” bells.
Fortunately, we had two more opportunities to play at the Kerstmarkt. The weather was never as fierce as that first session, and we even had a bit of sunshine and blue sky!
We were privileged to be invited to perform two duet concerts during Advent. The first was at First United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo, as part of their lunchtime Advent Concert Series. It was wonderful to be able to share our music in such a beautiful space.
Our second concert was at Second Reformed Church in Zeeland. We performed as part of their Second Series: Sublime Art in a Sacred Space concert series. We didn’t have piano accompaniment this time; just an hour of seasonal handbell duets. It was fun to meet and chat with audience members at the post-concert reception.
“Return visit” handbell performances
We’re always pleased to be invited back to give handbell duet performances for groups we’ve played for in past years. This year was our fourth Christmas performance at the Gary Byker Memorial Library in Hudsonville. It’s always a popular event, run by the Friends of the Library. We also spent another evening in concert with the Zeeland Community Band. We’ve been at the ZCB Christmas concert since 2016, and it’s become an annual tradition for us. The band has been growing in number over the last few years, and they sound better than ever! We made return visits to several senior communities and local organizations this year too.
Corporate parties are some of our favorite holiday events, and we had fun playing at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. We played Christmas music to welcome guests as they arrived at the party.
Concerts with the Kalamazoo Ringers
This December, we also enjoyed playing in a couple of concerts as part of the Kalamazoo Ringers. We took part in the annual Christmas in Kalamazoo event and the group’s Christmas concert at Grace Harbor Church. We even played one of Larry’s arrangements – Gaudete– and the full concert is now available to watch on YouTube.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this holiday season fun!
If you booked us for a performance or Christmas program or wrote a review of our performance – thank you. If you came to one of our concerts, we appreciate you too! To all those who offered us coffee or a meal, chatted with us, or prayed for us – thank you. We enjoyed sharing our handbell music with you, and we hope 2023 will be a happy and healthy year for you all!
The Monday Musical Club is a non-profit organisation dedicated to music education and promotion of creative and performing arts. Based in St. Joseph, Michigan, they hold a wide variety of education events and music performances. We were excited to be asked to present a shared concert with our friends Gary and Martha Matthews!
About Gary and Martha Matthews
Gary and Martha also live in Holland, and they’re a talented couple! Gary studied organ, music education, and sacred music, and holds a doctorate in Worship Studies. He served as Pastor of Worship and the Arts at Highland Park Baptist Church in Southfield, MI, and at Christ Memorial Church in Holland, MI. He’s a published composer, and has been performing for more than forty years, with piano, organ, trumpet and voice.
Martha holds a Bachelors in Music Education and a Masters in Flute Performance. She has played principal flute with Florida Symphonic Pops, Florida Wind Symphony, Gold Coast Opera, Gold Coast Ballet and the Washington Idaho Symphony. Martha directs the Kalamazoo Ringers, and is a sought-after handbell clinician. In concert with Gary, she plays flute, whistles, bell tree, and piano.
A concert with handbells, flute, piano, trumpet, and more!
We held our shared concert at First Congregational Church of St. Joseph. This is a beautiful sanctuary for a music performance! It was a treat for the four of us to be able to perform together. We’d spent most of our summer at our cottage near Petoskey, and Gary and Martha had been in Holland. Planning a concert and rehearsing is a challenge when you’re in different towns! Thanks to the power of email, and our individual rehearsals, we made it work.
Our program included music on a variety of instruments, including handbells (of course!) Gary and Martha opened the concert with a piece for piano and trumpet, and we continued with a couple of our favorite handbell duets. We also enjoyed the opportunity to get together as a quartet to perform some pieces – including Larry’s infamous arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing that the four of us had previously played for one of the Kalamazoo Ringers’ online Christmas concerts. We all played Blessed Assurance together, with a brand-new flute part that Larry had written specially for this concert. It was fun to find that some of the audience hadn’t seen handbells played in our 4-in-hand style before. We talked to audience members afterwards, and answered questions about our technique and the way we move.
Here’s the full program!
We enjoyed listening to Gary and Martha’s pieces, particularly Brent Olstad’s I Love to Tell the Story. Martha’s flute-played was enthralling to hear, and the audience clearly loved this piece. We finished the concert with an extra surprise – Larry’s lively arrangement of Ding Dong, Merrily on High. This is another arrangement for handbells, piano and flute, and it makes a perfect ending for a concert.
Our thanks go to the Monday Musical Club for inviting us to share our music in concert, and to everyone who came to listen. We hope to have the opportunity to perform in concert with Gary and Martha again someday!
If you’d like to provide an opportunity for us to perform in concert with Gary and Martha again, or you’d like to host a handbell duet performance, please get in touch with us, and we’ll talk more!
It’s only September, and technically not even fall/autumn yet, but we’re already scheduling bookings and events for the 2022 holiday season. Christmas is always our busiest time of year. If you’d like to book a handbell performance for the Christmas season, now is the time!
Why book a handbell performance for Christmas?
Everybody knows that bells and Christmas go together perfectly! Think of all the Christmas songs about bells; I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Jingle Bells, Silver Bells, Christmas Bells are Ringing, Ding Dong, Merrily on High… and the list goes on. Handbell music can give a special festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. As a handbell duo, we can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music, or provide background music to add a special, welcoming touch to your holiday event.
If you’re organizing a corporate event, a community group holiday celebration, winter wedding, or Christmas gathering, you should consider adding handbell music! Our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to hotel lobbies, department stores, shopping boutiques, community groups and private house parties alike. Handbells can be an unusual alternative to carol singers too!
As the 2022 holiday season approaches, we’re already looking forward to local Christmas performances in Holland, Zeeland and Grand Rapids. Look out for us again at the annual Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland! We’ll be taking our Christmas handbell program to community groups, and performing with the Zeeland Community Band. Of course, we’ll also be involved in performances by the Kalamazoo Ringers. We’re excited that the group will be performing one of Larry’s recent handbell arrangements for full choir in their concert!
The advantages of a (very) small handbell choir
We often refer to ourselves as West Michigan’s Smallest Handbell Choir. There are only two of us, so when we give a performance, we won’t arrive at your venue with a trailer packed with tables, foam pads, and dozens of cases of handbells! We also won’t need a huge space for our performance. We take up far less room than a traditional handbell choir would – approximately the space of half a car-parking spot. It makes us ideal for venues where space is limited, such as small church sanctuaries, senior communities, community halls, hotel lobbies, and private homes. We bring our own table, music stand, bells and music with us. We’ll work with you to provide the kind of entertainment you need, whether it’s background music, an educational program, or a concert-style performance.
A note about COVID-19
Sadly, COVID-19 is still around, and we make every effort to keep our audiences safe and healthy. We’re fully vaccinated, and will take note of any COVID-19 protocols you’re observing for your event. We do our best to maintain social distancing wherever possible, especially around elderly or vulnerable people. Still, every “in-person” event carries some risk. If you’d like us to prepare an online performance video for you to play at your event instead, please ask.
Would you like to book a handbell performance for Christmas?
A handbell performance could be exactly what your event needs for the 2022 Christmas and holiday season. Contact us to request our current performance fees, ask questions, or find out more. In order for us to give you the most accurate quote, please give us as much detail as possible. Let us know what kind of event you’re planning. Is it a worship service, a corporate party, a community event, or entertainment for a senior community? Let us know the date of the event, the location, and the type of performance you’re looking for.
We’re based in Holland, Michigan, but can travel (please enquire as early as possible, and allow for additional costs). We always recommend booking early (don’t wait until December!), but we can sometimes accommodate last-minute requests too. If in doubt, please ask.
We look forward to sharing our handbell music with you!
It’s hard to believe that the 2022 Bay View Week of Handbells was the 11th year we’ve attended this evening together! Of course, that would have happened sooner, if the pandemic hadn’t happened. The 2020 and 2021 Week of Handbells events were cancelled because of Covid-19, so it was a particularly good feeling to get back to it this year.
Our history with the Bay View Week of Handbells
We attended this annual event for the first time in August 2010, when we were still in our long-distance relationship. Carla flew to Chicago from England, and Larry flew in from California. We met in person for the very first time at Chicago O’Hare, and took the short flight to Traverse City together. Until then, we’d only ever communicated online, via Facebook messages, so it was exciting for us to be able to see each other in “real life” and spend time together.
After the 2010 Week of Handbells, we flew back to England and California, and spent a very long year apart. Finally, we were able to meet again at the 2011 Week of Handbells, where we celebrated our engagement with cupcakes at the Monday evening reception. Then we were separated again, returned to England and California, and went through all the challenges of the K-1 fiancée visa process. When the U.S. visa was approved, we were able to make plans to close the distance permanently. Planning the trip was complicated, but we made it all coincide with the 2012 Week of Handbells, and after the event was over, we flew to California to make our wedding plans. Apart from the two years when the event was cancelled, we’ve attended together every year since.
The 2022 Bay View Week of Handbells
This year’s Week of Handbells was a bit different for us, for an important reason; we now have our own Bay View cottage! We bought this Victorian cottage in October 2019, when we became members of the Bay View Association. It was built around 1887, and is a quirky little place, with uneven floors and some interesting features!
We appreciated being able to be “at home” between rehearsals, and to relax in our own place at the end of the day. In previous years, we’ve stayed in hotels, and also rented another of the Victorian cottages on campus. Our cottage is at the bottom of the hill, so we got plenty of exercise walking to and from rehearsals in the auditorium! We also had a steady stream of visitors, and enjoyed giving cottage tours to our handbell friends.
The 2022 event
Once again, Larry had the opportunity to play the aluminum bass bells, in the Deep Pit. Carla played AB5, as coordinator of the Position 7 team. Rehearsals went smoothly this year, and everyone was thankful to be back after the long break. We also heard that Bay View Association members were happy to see the return of the bell ringers, and eagerly awaited the Thursday evening concert.
The repertoire for the 2022 Week of Handbells was as follows:
Festive Praises(Fred Gramann) Tales of the Great Water (Sandra Eithun) Finale (Widor, arr. Fred Gramann) The Entertainer (Joplin, transcribed by Paul Kingbury) – available from Choraegus Intrepid (Jason Krug) Change Ring Prelude on ‘Fred Gramann’ (Jantz Black) Aurora (Matthew Compton) Aria (Donald Allured) São Paulo (Elizabeth Peters) The Sound of Silence (Paul Simon, arr. Matthew Compton) Bulwarkana (Alex Guebert) Puttin’ on the Ritz (Berlin, arr. Hart Morris) The Lord Bless You and Keep You (Peter Lutkin)
There were five winners of the Donald E. Allured Composition Award at this year’s concert. Was this a record? Sandra Eithun’s Tales of the Great Water was performed for the first time at the 2022 Week of Handbells, and we were all happy that she came to the concert to hear it!
Catherine McMichael, Sandra Eithun, Larry Sue, Alex Guebert and Matthew Compton
As usual, the week was a very busy one. Rehearsals are long and intense, and there isn’t a lot of spare time, although we always appreciate the Bay View sunsets, the opportunity to gather with friends on the Wednesday “evening off”, and the Bay View Memorial Garden, where the flowers never disappoint.
What’s next?
Now that we’ve put away our 2022 Week of Handbells music, we’re moving on to more duet performances, writing and playing new music, and preparing for the holiday season. We’ll still be spending as much time as we can at Bay View – driving back and forth between Holland and Petoskey – until the time comes to close up the cottage for the winter months. Before too long, it will be time to sign up for the 2023 event – and we’re already looking forward to it!
This spring we were excited to have the opportunity to play handbells on Mackinac Island again! Mackinac Island is situated between Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas, and it’s a beautiful place to visit. Cars are not allowed on the island, so it really is like stepping back in time. Horses are brought to the island every spring, and they spend the summer pulling carriages, carrying freight around the island, and giving rides to visitors.
Before this year’s event, the most recent Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 spring conference on the island took place in 2018. We were the featured artists for that event. We had such an enjoyable time there, and we were happy that the event could finally go ahead this spring. This time, we didn’t have the pressure of preparing the opening concert, or teaching classes (although we’d have been happy to teach if we’d been asked). It meant that we were able to do more tourist-things and treat it as a much needed mini-vacation!
The conference started on the Friday, with registration beginning on the Thursday evening. We decided to go across to the island on Wednesday, to give ourselves time to settle in and enjoy some of the sights while it was quiet. This turned out to be a really good idea!
Spring takes a long time to arrive in northern Michigan. On our way to the ferry in Mackinac City, we stopped to look at this huge tower of ice. A nearby signed called it the Ice Tree. The ice had started melting away – but there was still a lot left. This gave us a clue that the temperature on Mackinac Island might be a little chillier than at home in Holland.
Arriving on Mackinac Island
We took the Shepler’s ferry from Mackinac City to the island, and had a short and uneventful journey there. We arrived on the island, and decided we could manage to carry our stuff up the hill to Grand Hotel. The wind was blowing fiercely and it was a lot colder than we’d anticipated. Still, we coped, and soon reached the hotel, where we checked in and settled into our room.
Each of the guest rooms at Grand Hotel is individually decorated. We were there before the hotel officially opened for the season, so we could peek inside unoccupied rooms! The one in the photo above was ours; below are a couple of others:
Time to explore the island!
We spent Wednesday evening, and most of the day on Thursday, exploring the island. The handbell conference was being held before the hotel (and the island) officially opened for summer visitors. That meant that a lot of the shops and restaurants weren’t open yet. There was a fair amount of activity downtown, though, as the shops and hotels prepared for the influx of guests. We enjoyed walking along the uncrowded streets and beaches, and admiring some of the beautiful houses… and the horses! It’s always fun to play the “which house would you choose?” game. We can all dream, right?
We wouldn’t like to give the impression that this trip was more about a vacation than handbells… but we did have a lot of fun before the event started. There’s so much to see in this part of Michigan! We walked around 15 miles during the first couple of days on the island.
Rehearsing our 8-bell duets at Grand Hotel
We decided to play through some of our 8-bell duets on the Wednesday. We’re thankful to Grand Hotel for allowing us to rehearse in their Cupola Bar, on the top floor of the hotel. It was a lovely place to practise, with views across the lake. Here’s a video of our 8-bell arrangement of Amazing Grace:
If you’d like to see all the videos we recorded at the hotel, you can see them in a showcase on our Vimeo channel.
The handbell conference started on Friday, with the first massed ringing rehearsal and an excellent concert by Quadrants Handbell Quartet. We didn’t count how many handbell choirs were at the event, but the auditorium was full. There were classes on various topics too. We attended one about handbell music for small groups, featuring some of our 8-, 12- and 16-bell music, along with music by other arrangers. It’s wonderful to know that there’s so much music available for small groups now. Fred Gramann was the director for the event, and we had a surprisingly large number of people in the audience for the final concert on Saturday afternoon. We performed pieces by Fred Gramann, Linda Lamb, Sandra Eithun, Jason Krug and Dan Edwards, and all were well received.
Thanks to HMA Area 5!
After the pandemic-related delay, it was wonderful to gather and play handbells on Mackinac Island again! Our thanks go to all at Area 5 of the Handbell Musicians of America – for all the hard work that went into organising this year’s spring conference. It takes a lot of time and effort to create an event like this, and we appreciate everyone who worked so hard to make it a success.
So, when will we get to play handbells on Mackinac Island again? That’s a good question. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we won’t have to wait too long!
While on the Sea is a traditional Ukrainian folk hymn. The original title is Страшно бушует житейское море, but the English title is the only one we can pronounce! We’re thankful to Stephan Bilak (1926-2004) for the English translation:
The hymn is hauntingly beautiful, often sung a cappella without accompaniment – as a prayer to God for protection from the stormy waters of life. There are videos on YouTube, where you can listen to it sung in the original language.
About our arrangement of While on the Sea
Our arrangement is for 8 handbells and piano. The sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus, our music site. An mp3 accompaniment track is also available to purchase separately. This can be useful if you don’t have an available accompanist, or for rehearsing at home.
Choraegus is donating all proceeds from this arrangement to UNICEF.When you purchase the sheet music, you’ll be helping to support the relief effort for children and families in Ukraine. Please help us to spread the word, by sharing the video with your friends in the handbell world!
More information about Choraegus handbell music
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. Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement allows you to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment score). Purchase also gives permission for recording, broadcasting, live-streaming and sharing on video-sharing sites and social media. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (While on the Sea) and arranger of the piece (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media, and in any printed materials such as church service bulletins.
If you record your group playing any of our music, we’d love to see your videos!
If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this 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 be happy to help!
December brought us a busy month of holiday handbell performances. After last year’s quiet holiday season, we launched back into live performances with a vengeance in the last few weeks of 2021.
Back to the Kerstmarkt-Holland
Our first seasonal performance was at this year’s Kerstmarkt in downtown Holland. This was our fifth time performing at this European-style Christmas market, and we always enjoy it. It was surprisingly cold this year, and we were thankful for the loan of a heater (thanks, Shady Side Farm!). Having said that, this event is always a highlight of our holiday season, whatever the weather. The market is a little slice of Europe here in West Michigan, and there are interesting things to buy, all made locally, and twinkling lights to add a festive atmosphere.
Here’s a video of us at the Kerstmarkt!
Christmas Handbell Program for Seniors
We performed handbell duets at several senior communities this year. Our program of holiday handbell music generally lasts around 40-45 minutes. We played a selection of Christmas carols, some familiar and some less well-known, and on several occasions we had time for a question-and-answer session with the audience. It’s always fun to talk about the history of our instruments and the techniques used in playing them. We also get asked a lot of questions about how we met, and how we ended up in Michigan!
The other thing we enjoy doing, time permitting, is demonstrating an 8-bell piece on handchimes. They have a very pure tone, and lend themselves well to Christmas carols. Our favourite demonstration piece this year was In the Bleak Midwinter, which worked well on chimes, and proved to be popular with our audiences.
We were also able to demonstrate our set of antique Taylor bells from England, at the Ringing in the Holidays event at Hudsonville Library. Playing these bells is more challenging for us, because the leather handles are more floppy than the handles on the bells we usually use, so we tend to use them to demonstrate some of our slower Christmas pieces – like Away in a Manger (Cradle Song), or the Dutch carol Hoe Leit dit Kindeke. It’s interesting to be able to show before-and-after photos of these handbells, which we bought from eBay and sent over to Ireland for restoration. Here’s how they look now:
Holiday handbell performances in (not so) far-off places
This year, we drove to Kalamazoo for a couple of our holiday bookings. We were thankful that the weather stayed mild all through December, so driving around wasn’t a problem at all. We enjoyed playing at a corporate holiday party, where we played an hour of “background music”, then gave a 30-minute duet performance. As it was a party, we handed out some handchimes to willing volunteers, and they had a go at playing Jingle Bells. Oh, what fun!
We went back to Burcham Hills, in East Lansing, where we’d played Christmas music outdoors at their socially-distant Festival of Lights last year. This year we were happy to be indoors, and we gave a two-hour performance during their Ho-Ho-Holiday Open House event.
Performing with the Zeeland Community Band
We were delighted to be able to perform in concert with our friends at the Zeeland Community Band again. After a two-year break, it was exciting to see how much this talented ensemble has grown, both in number and in skill. It was a wonderful concert, with a wide variety of Christmas and holiday tunes, and an appreciative audience. It’s been noticeable to us how people have rejoiced at having the opportunity to hear (and see) live music performances again.
Christmas Eve worship services
We concluded our busy month of holiday handbell performances with four Christmas Eve services. We played in the three services at Ridge Point Community Church, where we’d last played in December 2017. It was good to be back! We played a pre-service handbell prelude, and joined their talented band for Lincoln Brewster’s Miraculum in each of the services. Didn’t our handbells look pretty under those lights?
We finished our Christmas performance season with the 11:00pm service at Third Reformed Church, here in Holland. We played a 15-minute prelude, and added handbell parts to several of the hymns and the Silent Night organ postlude. After our busy day, and a hectic month of holiday handbell performances, the late service was exactly what we needed. As Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day, we went home for some sleep!
Thank you so much for a wonderful 2021 holiday season. If you booked us for a handbell duet performance, we’re grateful to you. If you came to one of our public events and stopped to listen, or if you offered encouragement or kind comments about our music, please be assured that your words meant a lot to us. To everyone who bought handbell music from Choraegus, or ordered a copy of The Bass Ringer’s Notebook – thank you. And if you connected with us on our Facebook page or YouTube channel, or shared our music videos on social media, we’re grateful to you too. We look forward to sharing lots more handbell music with you in 2022!
You can now watch the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Christmas concert On a Winter’s Night on YouTube! If you missed the live-stream on Facebook, you can now catch up at your leisure. The whole concert is available to watch on the Kalamazoo Ringers’ official YouTube channel:
There are also individual videos of each of the concert performances, so you can catch up with your favorites, and share the videos with your friends and on social media.
We were honored that the concert contained several Choraegus handbell arrangements:
We enjoyed playing this 16-bell piece with Rhonda and Martha – in our house in Holland, Michigan! The beauty of a small-ensemble concert is being able to rehearse and record in smaller venues, and it’s fun to invite the audience into our homes for a short while.
Of the Father’s Love Begotten
This is a very recent arrangement – so new that we haven’t even published it yet. It’s an interesting twist on the Divinum Mysterium plainchant melody, familiar to many handbell ringers because of Fred Gramann’s famous arrangement. This is a quirky and fun arrangement, with the addition of a cajón part. We decided that a Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert was a good reason/excuse to put a recording together. If all goes to plan, the sheet music will be available to purchase from Choraegus in May 2022.
Wexford Carol is another of our 16-bell arrangements. It’s a traditional Irish carol that’s full of dissonance and rich chords. This arrangement has been popular with Choraegus customers this year! Rhonda and Martha joined us for this performance.
This 8-bell arrangement of the Huron Carol lends itself well to bass handbells! We met with Rhonda and John to rehearse and perform Matthew Prins’s arrangement of Fum, Fum, Fum. At the last minute, we decided it could be fun to drop this one a couple of octaves and see how it would sound. We think it worked well!
We’ve been playing this 8-bell arrangement for several years now, and always enjoy it. It brings back happy memories of a fun Christmas performance in California in 2014! We were thankful for the opportunity to record it again fo this year’s Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
This is another recent arrangement from Choraegus. It’s pure fun to play! It has mixed meters, a lively feel, and a challenging flute addition. Our talented Holland-neighbors Martha and Gary Matthews joined us for this performance. We’ll be publishing this one in spring or summer 2022, along with a 5-octave version!
We hope that the Kalamazoo Ringers will be able to get back to in-person rehearsals and concerts in 2022. In some ways, the group’s time apart has been good for us; we’ve all been able to develop our skills in small-ensemble ringing. Having said that, we’re all very much looking forward to being able to make music together again!
If you have questions about any of the Choraegus music from the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Christmas concert, please get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to help! We encourage you to share the Christmas concert videos with your friends, and we hope to see many of you at one of the Kalamazoo Ringers’ concerts in 2022!
The 2021 Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert is tomorrow!
We’re excited about this concert! On a Winter’s Night will be streamed on the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Facebook page at 4pm EST. We were all disappointed not to be able to rehearse and prepare our usual Christmas concert at Grace Harbor. Instead, we cautiously decided to gather only in small groups for this Christmas season – and it turned out to be a lot of fun! The concert is an interesting mixture of handbell solos, duets and small ensembles – with a lot of Choraegus music!
We’re particularly excited to share our 5-octave arrangement of Of the Father’s Love Begotten. This is a new piece that we haven’t published yet. It will be available to download from Choraegus in May next year. There’s also an exciting arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, where we’re joined by Martha and Gary Matthews on flute and piano. There’s a nice mixture of small ensemble pieces, from Jason Krug’s beautiful Coventry, played on bell tree, to the pure fun of Valerie Stephenson’s Caroler’s Hoedown… and if you stay tuned until the end, we’ll even show you some outtakes!
The Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert will be live on the Kalamazoo Ringers Facebook page at 4:00pm on Sunday, December 19. The video will be available to watch on Facebook and YouTube afterwards.
We have high hopes of presenting an in-person concert next spring!
