Yesterday we enjoyed taking part in Linda Strouf’s organ recital Around the Liturgical Year in Chorale Preludes. The recital took place at Grace Episcopal Church here in Holland, Michigan.
Linda has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Hope College since 1988. She is also the Minister of Music at Third Reformed Church, where she plays the organ and piano, and directs the two adult singing choirs and the adult handbell choir. Linda is a champion of newly composed, contemporary organ music. We were very excited to be part of this recital!
With Linda Strouf after the recital
Linda Strouf’s organ recital was an interesting and entertaining journey through the church year. The audience clearly enjoyed the music!
The three pieces we performed with Linda were: In the Bleak Midwinter, Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee and Calliope House. We first performed these pieces in California, with organist and composer T. Paul Rosas, who wrote the organ accompaniments. Handbells and organ blend well together!
In the Bleak Midwinter and Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee are available for purchase and download from Choraegus We haven’t yet published Calliope House, but watch this space!
Many thanks to Linda for inviting us to be part of this recital, and to everyone who attended!
It seems like only a short time ago that we were making plans for the run-up to Christmas. Suddenly, poof! December’s over, and our busy holiday season of performances is behind us.
We had an interesting time! Here are some of the highlights:
Candlelight services for Advent
Our Advent season started with two Christmas by Candlelight services – one in Marne and the other in Grand Haven. Both these evenings were beautiful; an opportunity for a community to come together and welcome the season with music and fellowship. Handbell music fits so perfectly for such occasions.
At the United Methodist Church of the Dunes, Grand Haven
More collaboration with the Zeeland Community Band
We joined with the Zeeland Community Band for another concert this holiday season. It’s fun to add our handbells to some of the band’s festive favorites. We can’t restrict ourselves to playing only 8 bells in each piece, so it’s quite a challenge too, switching bells frequently during pieces.
In concert with the Zeeland Community Band
A new challenge – playing handbells in the dark
We played an hour of soothing holiday music at Abrams Planetarium. This was part of the “Rest With Music: Goodnight Series” at Michigan State University. It was a very different kind of performance venue for us – playing in darkness while stars and snowflakes drifted above. The audience was there to relax, maybe even take a nap, and enjoy an hour of continuous music.
The challenges for us were: a) playing in darkness, with only a music-stand light to help us see the music; b) having to remove a sheet of music at the end of each piece and replace it with another one, and c) changing bells between pieces at top speed, so as not to interrupt the flow of music. We managed by taking an additional table with us. Once we’d finished playing a piece, Larry would continue to hold at least two notes, still ringing, while Carla pulled the score off the music stand and onto the extra table, leaving the next score ready to play. After a bit of practice at home, we were able to do this smoothly. We limited our key changes, and played pieces in “blocks” all in the same key, which kept the challenge of changing bells between pieces to a minimum. It was an enjoyable event, and we hope to go back to the Planetarium again in the future!
Community and church events
This season, we enjoyed presenting varied programs of Christmas and holiday music to community, charity and church groups in and around Holland and Grand Rapids. It’s always an interesting experience to talk about our bells and our music – and it’s fun to take questions from audience members, some of whom haven’t heard handbells before, or haven’t seen our 4-in-hand style of ringing.
A Christmas program for the Sallie Bender Guild of Spectrum Health
We also played at a couple of corporate holiday parties in Grand Rapids, where we greeted guests with Christmas carols!
Holiday party at the Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids
Some of our most rewarding performances of the holiday season took place at senior living communities and nursing homes in our local area. We played carols for small groups of residents, and provided last-minute entertainment at a care home holiday party after the previously-booked entertainer cancelled.
We challenged ourselves, once again, to give twelve hours of our time to play Christmas carols at the Salvation Army Red Kettle. The Salvation Army does a lot of good work here in West Michigan – and we’ve spoken to people who have benefited personally from their help. So we were more than happy to offer our support to their Christmas fundraising campaign. We played four 3-hour sessions at our local D&W Fresh Market, and hope to do the same again next year.
Christmas handbell music in Downtown Holland
It was fun to play Christmas music in Downtown Holland too! We enjoyed giving two performances in Cherry Republic – one of our favorite stores on 8th Street. We also made our first appearance at the annual Kerstmarkt, on a chilly Friday evening. Playing handbell duets outdoors in cold weather is an interesting challenge. Thankfully, the snow hadn’t yet started to fall. Although we noticed some interesting differences in the pitch and ringing action of the bells, there was no lasting damage. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be part of such a festive local event. We hope to be able to repeat the experience at the 2018 Kerstmarkt!
Our 2017 Christmas performance season ended at Ridge Point Community Church, where we played in their three Christmas Eve services. We also made our first visit to Christ Memorial Church, greeting people with handbell music as they arrived for services.
Our bells in the lights – Christmas Eve at Ridge Point Community Church, Holland
We’d like to thank everyone who helped to make our 2017 holiday season so memorable (and busy!). To everyone who booked us to provide entertainment, or came to one of our performances, we thank you. If you supported us during one of our Salvation Army sessions, or wrote a review – we appreciate that.
If you missed our holiday season performances this year, check our website and Facebook page for information about future events. Look out for us in Holland and beyond in 2018!
The 2017 Christmas and holiday season will soon be upon us! Handbells can bring a magical and festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. We can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music, or provide background music to add that special, welcoming touch to your corporate event, community group celebration, winter wedding, or holiday gathering. Nothing says Christmas quite as well as the traditional sound of English handbells – and our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to hotel lobbies, department stores, shopping boutiques, community groups and private house parties alike.
The 2017 holiday season is fast approaching. We’re looking forward to performances in Jenison, South Olive, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Marne and Holland, Michigan. We’ll be playing our handbell duets at “Christmas by Candlelight” events, corporate holiday parties, Christmas luncheons, and worship services. We’ll also be performing with the Zeeland Community Band in their Christmas concert on December 11th.
We’re probably the smallest community handbell choir in West Michigan. That means we take up far less room than a traditional bell choir would. We’re ideal for venues where space is limited, such as small church sanctuaries, community halls, hotel lobbies, and private homes.
A handbell performance could be exactly what you need for the 2017 Christmas and holiday season! Contact us to request our current fee schedule, ask questions, or book us to enhance your Christmas event with the traditional sound of handbells!
Our handbells have become a regular part of Zeeland Community Band performances since we moved to Michigan last year. We’ve joined in with their Christmas concerts and summer performances. Now we’re branching out! We’ll be guest artists in a concert with the Coopersville Community Concert Band at the end of this month. We’re looking forward to this new experience!
More information about the concert
October Incantations takes place on Monday, October 23 at 7:30pm, at the Coopersville High School Center Stage Theatre. Admission is free, but this community band will appreciate any donations to help with the cost of presenting this concert. The band will be performing many concert band favorites, including Radetzky March, Incantations and Dance, October, Palladio and Danse Macabre.
We’ll be playing our handbells, both with the band and on our own. We’re looking forward to adding some spooky tunes to the evening. The concert will also feature the first performance of the newly-formed Coopersville Community Choir. The band (and the handbell duo) will be in costume, and you are invited to attend in costume too. It’s an opportunity to dig out your Halloween clothes and join in the fun!
We recently celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary. What better way to celebrate than by spending a day at a handbell festival? First Congregational Church in Saginaw hosted a Fall Handbell Festival – Ringing in a New Season, and invited us to take part in the fun.
First Congregational Church – the venue for the handbell festival
Someone somewhere forgot to push the “It’s the fall season now!” button. That meant the weather was hot, hot, hot! Around 40 intrepid handbell musicians from churches around the area attended. We gathered together in a very warm church to rehearse and perform under the baton of world-renowned pianist and composer Catherine McMichael. Catherine had written two original compositions for the event, and Dr. Quincy Dobbs was there to play the organ.
Handbell workshops with bass and treble bells
Larry enjoyed the opportunity to get his hands on some bass handbells again. He led workshops for festival participants to find out more about bass bell techniques. Carla led well-attended workshops exploring some of the techniques and challenges involved in playing treble bells. We all enjoyed discussing the merits of various multiple bell techniques. Some of the treble ringers worked on weaving a series of bells without crossing their arms! That can be a challenge, but everyone did very well.
Our friend Kim Finison from Lansing (we know him from the Bay View Week of Handbells!) was on hand to help with handbell maintenance and repairs. We all enjoyed a wonderful lunch and great hospitality.
Larry enjoyed the opportunity to play bass bells again!
Thanks to all involved in making this festival happen!
We had a very enjoyable day at the festival. Our thanks go to Jeri at FCC and everyone involved with the huge task of organising the event. We hope to do it all again someday!
We’re excited to be able to share a video of the world premiere of Larry’s original composition Coronation and Triumphant Exultation. The video is from the 2017 Bay View Week of Handbells, here in Michigan.
The Week of Handbells is an annual event; always one of the highlights of our year. We’ve been attending together since 2010. The Thursday evening concert is always an exciting experience. The musicians work hard for months beforehand, and it’s a thrilling concert to be part of. This video is part of the full concert recording by Pierpont Productions.
This piece is the 2017 Donald E. Allured Original Composition Award piece. Larry dedicated the piece to Maestro Carl Wiltse, who directed the Bay View Week of Handbells for fifteen years. Here’s a photo of us with Carl. Yes, he’s a lot taller than we are!
With Maestro Carl Wiltse at Bay View Week of Handbells 2014
Any questions?
If you have any questions about this piece, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help. We hope you’ll enjoy playing this piece!
Estonian House was a wonderful performance venue. The building houses the New York Estonian School, an Estonian dance school and choir, and it’s where an Estonian-language newspaper is published. So it was the perfect place to hold the first Campanelli concert on their U.S. tour! There wasn’t room for a huge audience, but the seats were filled, and everyone enjoyed the performance.
This concert contains music by Susan T. Nelson and others, and includes the first-ever performance of Sue’s beautiful arrangement of Mu Süda Ärka Üles. We commissioned that piece to commemorate our fifth wedding anniversary and the Campanelli tour. You’ll see us during the performance of that piece, playing a part for 8-bell duet. You’ll also see some traditional Estonian dancing at the end of the concert, where audience members were invited to join in. The concert also featured a performance by guest artist Natalia Paruz – known as “The Saw Lady”. If you’ve never seen a virtuoso performance on the musical saw, you should enjoy this! Natalia performs regularly in the New York Subway, and has provided music for movies and TV internationally.
We hope you’ll enjoy the Campanelli Handbell Ensemble concert – Sue’s Blues Too! If you have any questions, please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.
We had a lot of fun taking part in our first Downtown Holland Street Performer Series since moving to Michigan last year. We performed on two evenings – one in June and one in August – in two different locations on 8th Street.
Larry and Carla – Handbell Duets in Downtown Holland
We enjoyed playing our handbell duets in Downtown Holland. We especially appreciated how many people stopped to chat with us about the bells and our music. Even though many people here in Holland have seen and heard handbell choirs before, there are many people who haven’t seen handbell music performed by just two people holding two bells in each hand. We always enjoy showing people how we play, and explaining some of the techniques we use in our music.
Four-in-hand handbell duets in Holland, Michigan
Thank you to all the event supporters!
The Street Performer Series is a fun community event, and we’re happy to have been given the opportunity to take part. Our thanks go to the Gentex Corporation and Holland Christian Schools for sponsoring this event. Thanks also to the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs for their support through the Holland Area Arts Council. Special thanks to everyone who stopped to listen to our music and chat with us. We hope to perform on 8th Street again next summer!
This week we’re settling back into “normal life”, after a wonderful time spent with the Campanelli Handbell Ensemble. Campanelli visited the USA for the first time as a group, and we joined them for their tour. It was our first experience of visiting New York City and Niagara Falls, Canada. We tried some Estonian food, enjoyed concerts, and had the opportunity to perform with the group. We played a piece commissioned in celebration of the tour and our fifth wedding anniversary!
The story behind the project (short version!)
The story behind Campanelli Handbell Ensemble’s US tour began as long ago as 2010, when composer Susan T. Nelson received a Facebook message from Inna Lai, director of a handbell choir in Estonia. Inna said that the Estonian group had performed and recorded one of Sue’s compositions. She offered to send Sue a CD. From that first message, a strong friendship grew – and Sue sent Inna more of her music for Campanelli to play! In 2013, much to the composer’s astonishment, Campanelli played an entire concert of her music – entitled Sue’s Blues. They invited Sue to travel to Estonia to attend the performance, in the oldest concert hall in Tallinn.
Since that 2013 concert, Inna and Susan dreamed of being able to bring the Sue’s Blues concert to the USA. Bringing a group of musicians to another country, organising travel arrangements, accommodation, concert venues and instruments – well, it’s a huge undertaking! It took a group of people who were 100% committed to the project. They formed a committee, and launched a fundraising campaign. They found performance venues, and financial support started to come in. Then they invited professional soloists to take part in the concerts, and various offers of help arrived. Piece-by-piece, this amazing project came to fruition, and history was made!
How did we get involved?
People have been asking us how we became involved in the project. Our connection with the group started when Carla travelled to Estonia from the UK in 2011, for a handbell festival. She met Campanelli and their director Inna Lai, and they became Facebook friends. We’ve both been fans of Susan’s compositions for a long time now. When we read about the fundraising campaign last year, we were fortunate to be in a position to offer our support. This led to Sue offering to write a handbell piece for us. This turned out to be a beautiful arrangement of the Estonian folk song Mu Süda Ärka Üles, (Awake, My Heart). After an exchange of Facebook messages with Sue, we decided it would be a fun adventure for us to take part in all four of the concerts. So we started to make plans for a road trip!
Fun on the tour!
Our road trip began with a two-day drive from our home in Holland, Michigan… all the way to Jersey City. It felt like an extension of the journey we took in the summer of 2016, from California to Michigan! We arrived in Jersey City in the evening of July 20th, and took our first-ever trip to New York City.
A rose… placed on the memorial to commemorate the birthday of one of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack
The following day, we returned to New York City for the first of the Campanelli concerts. The day was not entirely without drama. First, we found out the cost of the taxi fare from our hotel in Jersey City to Manhattan. Then we found ourselves locked out of Estonian House when we arrived there! Fortunately the composer and event organiser Sue was locked out too. At least we all had people to talk to while we waited for someone to let us in!
Estonian House
Estonian House, the concert venue, is NYC’s community and cultural center for Estonian people. It was fascinating to see inside the building, with its ornately-carved staircases and sparkling chandeliers. We met up with the members of Campanelli, and the featured soloist for the evening’s concert – Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz. Natalia is a resident of the City and a virtuoso musical saw player. After a brief rehearsal for the evening’s performance, we grabbed the opportunity to play through some of our 8-bell music with Natalia and her musical saw – and it was such a fun experience!
With composer Susan T. Nelson and Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz
Our next stop on the Campanelli US tour was in Hamilton, New Jersey, for the second concert, at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. This was the longest of the concerts, featuring a variety of talented soloists playing flute, trumpet, trombone, marimba and tambura. There was also a soprano soloist (yay Debora!) who was brave enough to sing in Estonian. Inna explained to the audience that the Estonian language has more vowel sounds than the ones we’re familiar with!
Campanelli, joined by members of Our Lady of Sorrows Bell Choir and composer Susan’s handbell choir for the final piece in the concert
More sightseeing in NYC
The following day, we had an unexpected opportunity to go back to New York City for more sightseeing. This time two friends accompanied us, and did all the driving. The City felt far less overwhelming when we had a couple of experienced tour guides with us! We went back to the 9/11 Memorial, and also visited the museum; a very moving experience for all of us. We finished our day in Chinatown – with Mongolian hot pot!
Chinatown NYC at night (yes, that’s Larry in the white t shirt!)
The next concert was at St Paul Lutheran, in Beachwood, NJ. This concert was another huge success. The St Paul Ringers joined the group for the final piece, “A Trumpet Voluntary”.
Campanelli at St Paul Lutheran Church, Beachwood, NJ
The Malmark tour is always fascinating, with an opportunity to learn about each stage of the process. We and the group had been looking forward to touring the Schulmerich factory that afternoon too. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up in communications with the bus company. We had to cancel the tour, but hope to get there someday, though!
The final concert on the tour
The final concert took place in the Visitors’ Center at the historic Washington Crossing in Pennsylvania. The concert featured video footage of Estonia’s “Singing Revolution”. This film showed the role music played in the country’s fight to win back their independence from the Soviet Union. It was an evening for celebration; a mixture of emotions for all of us, as we knew the tour was coming to an end.
With Susan T. Nelson and Inna Lai after the final concert of the tour
With the concerts successfully completed, the only task remaining was to drive to Canada, for an exciting trip to Niagara Falls! The two of us had splurged on a hotel room with a view of the Falls; definitely a good decision.
An impressive morning view of the Horseshoe Falls, from our hotel window!
We met up with Campanelli for dinner at the Skylon Tower. This place has a wonderful view of the Falls from 775 feet up! During our brief stay in Canada we also enjoyed a boat trip. It was a great way to cool off, and to take photos at close range. After a fun morning of sightseeing and shopping, we drove back home to Michigan.
Thank you to everyone involved with this project!
The Campanelli US tour was a wonderful experience for all of us. The ideas and planning started three years ago, and the organisers should be proud of their achievement in managing to get everything to come together so perfectly. Campanelli’s musical skill and artistry wowed the audiences at their concerts, combining the music of bells with other solo instruments in a way that held people’s attention and kept everyone interested. We learned more about Estonian culture and history, and the members of Campanelli enjoyed the excitement and the challenge of visiting new places, meeting new people, and practising their English language skills with those of us who seriously need to start learning at least some basic words in Estonian!
Above all, new friendships were made, and old friendships were strengthened. We feel privileged to have had the opportunity to be part of this event – and our thanks go to everyone involved in making the tour so memorable for us all.
The musicians of Campanelli Handbell Ensemble are on tour in the USA! The group is from Tallin, Estonia, and their director is Inna Lai. Coming to the USA to perform has been a huge ambition for this group for a while now! Campanelli will be giving four concerts, which will each showcase different compositions and local professional soloists.
The concert dates and locations are as follows:
Friday, July 21, 2017 at 7:00pm – Estonian House, 243 E. 34th St, New York, NY 10016
Sunday, July 23, 2017 at 7:00pm – Our Lady of Sorrows, 3816 East State St. Ext., Hamilton, NJ 08619
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 7:00 pm – St. Paul Lutheran Church, 130 Cable Avenue, Beachwood, NJ 08722
Friday, July 28, 2017 at 7:00pm – Visitor Center, Washington Crossing Park, 1112 River Rd., Washington Crossing, PA,
We’ll be making a small musical contribution to each of these concerts, and will be sharing in some of the group’s adventures over the next ten days. This will include (we hope) a tour of the Malmark and Schulmerich handbell factories in Pennsylvania. We’ll keep our Facebook page updated regularly with news and photos. We hope you’ll join us as we look forward to following this Estonian handbell ensemble on tour in the USA!
