We’re settling back into normal life after our trip to Petoskey for the 2018 Bay View Week of Handbells. We’ve unpacked our cases, and done the laundry. The only task that remains is to file away the music.

Our history with the Week of Handbells

The Bay View Week of Handbells has become an annual tradition for us. We attended for the first time in August 2010, when we were still in our long-distance relationship. Carla flew to Chicago from England, Larry flew in from California, and we met in person for the very first time before taking the short flight to Traverse City together. Our first Week of Handbells was an emotional and fun event. We met so many new friends there! Most importantly, we had the opportunity to find out how it felt to spend time together in the same place. It was a luxury we’d never had until then, having only previously communicated in an endless string of Facebook messages!

When our first trip to Bay View was over, we were apart again for a whole year. We met again at the 2011 Week of Handbells, and celebrated our engagement at the Monday evening reception.

The following year was a busy one for us, as we dealt with the challenges of the U.S. fiancée visa process. Finally, we were able to close the distance in August 2012. We timed everything to coincide with that year’s Week of Handbells. Larry flew to England, then we flew back together from London to Chicago. Next, we traveled to Traverse City for the week of rehearsals and the Thursday evening concert. After the event was over, we were able to take a flight to California and begin our life together.

Since then, we’ve been fortunate to be able to continue to attend the Week of Handbells every year. Our journey there became even easier after we moved from California to Holland, Michigan in the summer of 2016. These days, instead of having to book flights, we can simply get in the car and drive for a few hours, and we’re there!

What’s special about the Bay View Week of Handbells?

Firstly (and because this ties in with the mission statement of the event – see footnote), the standard of ringing is very high. The whole idea is that musicians will prepare the music thoroughly in the months before the event. It means taking time to learn the notes, work out strategies and solutions for tricky passages, and practise dynamics. When the event arrives, we can use the time to work on expression and the finer points of performing to a high professional standard. That relies on every ringer taking personal responsibility before the event. It’s such a wonderful feeling to attend an event knowing that you can rely on your neighbors to know the music thoroughly before the first rehearsal even begins.

The Bay View family

For us, one of the real highlights of the Week of Handbells is that it’s about so much more than just the music. The music is hugely important, of course, but so is the incredible feeling of friendship and fellowship that comes from returning to a place you love, and sharing that space with so many familiar people who have started to feel like family to us. The changes to the sign-up process for this year’s event meant that there were more first-time participants than usual. We admit to feeling heavy-hearted that some of our friends weren’t able to attend this year. There are some people who, for us, seem to belong at Bay View, and we felt their absence during the week. Having said that, we were also new to the event not so many years ago, and it’s important to welcome new participants and to hope that they, too, will soon feel part of the Bay View family. One of the great new developments this year was the introduction of a tuition scholarship for a young adult ringer.

New at Bay View – position captains

Another change this year was the introduction of “Position Captains” – a group of Bay View alumni responsible for going through the music and suggesting solutions and strategies for difficult passages, communicating with ringers, and responding to questions, in an effort to make this year’s practice go more smoothly for everyone. Carla had the opportunity to coordinate the Position 7 team this year. Despite the initial stress of having to start working on the music eight months before the event, it seemed to be a real advantage to correspond with a team of ringers and coordinate bell-sharing and ideas for those “possibly-impossible” measures in the weeks and months before we all arrived in Petoskey. The responsibility for practice still lies with each ringer as an individual, of course. However, this year it felt good to be part of a supportive team, working together to reach a shared goal.

Skilled conducting makes a difference

Another thing that makes the Week of Handbells so special is the opportunity to perform under the baton of a really inspiring director. The event was established in 1978 by Don Allured, who passed the baton to Carl Wiltse in 2002. Fred Gramann took over as director in 2018, and did not disappoint. With his attention to detail and skilled conducting, it’s not surprising that he is in demand as a handbell director for events all over the world.

Exciting and challenging repertoire

The repertoire for the Bay View Week of Handbells is always challenging and rewarding. Favorites from this year’s concert program included Catherine McMichael’s Celtic Queen, Fred Gramann’s Prelude on Herzliebster Jesu and Michael Joy’s Proclamation (so much fun for the AB5 ringers!) Larry once again had the honor of being part of the Deep Pit team for this year’s event. He played the aluminum bells that are so exciting to watch during the Thursday evening concert.

The concert on Thursday evening was an exciting event, where we all reaped the rewards of all the hard work we’d put in during the rehearsals, and in the weeks and months leading up to the event. With just the right mixture of “celebration” (including Doug Benton’s composition Alluredia, the Donald E. Allured Composition Award piece) and “dance” (including Charles Peery’s audience-pleasing arrangement of Love Will Keep Us Together) the audience and musicians really enjoyed the evening.

Bay View is such a beautiful location

The Week of Handbells takes place in a beautiful part of Michigan. Bay View is a National Historic Landmark community, founded in 1875 and owned by the United Methodist Church. There are more than thirty public buildings on the campus, two inns and more than 400 cottages. This year, for the first time, we stayed in one of the cottages, and it was so convenient to be able to walk to and from rehearsals each day. Our cottage was just a short walk from the lake. On our first evening there, we went to the beach to watch the sunset together. What could be more beautiful than this?

Of course, anyone who knows us well… will also know that we take every possible opportunity to look for Petoskey stones while we’re at Bay View. The Petoskey stone is the official Michigan State Stone. It’s a fossilised coral – Hexagonaria percarinata – that lived in the warm Michigan waters around 350 million years ago. We found some on the beach while we were watching the sunset, and a few more after the Farewell Breakfast on Friday morning.

We hope to be back next year!

We’re always sorry to have to leave Bay View when the Week of Handbells is over. Now that we live in Michigan, though, the goodbyes are less painful. When home is just a few hours’ drive away, a temporary farewell is much less traumatic. We hope to be back at next year’s event!

Note: The Bay View Week of Handbells Mission Statement (as stated on the Week of Handbells website) is:
“The Bay View Week of Handbells exists to give advanced ringers an opportunity to prepare a concert to be performed at a high professional level.”

© 2018 Larry and Carla Sue