Returning to the San Francisco Bay Area for a concert!
Just three years ago, Larry and Carla Sue left the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Holland, Michigan. Since then, they have spent their time proving that yes, you can play eight bells with only two ringers, and they’ve built a thriving online music business in the process. Now they’re back in the Bay Area to showcase their talents as a duo, and feature their music.
Larry and Carla first met when they started chatting via an online handbell community. Their in-person meeting was delayed (since Carla lived in England and Larry in California), but a year after they finally connected at a handbell event in 2010, they were engaged. They have been arranging music for handbells and performing duets together ever since. So far, their performances have taken them to Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Michigan, and New Jersey, and they have been featured at weddings, memorials, concerts, corporate events, worship services, holiday events, classes, workshops, and even on television.
This dynamic duo plays with an ease that showcases what can be accomplished with just two ringers and only eight handbells. The Bay Area is pleased to welcome Larry and Carla back in a one-time concert this spring — don’t miss it!
No tickets required; a free-will offering will be collected to help Handbell Ventures with the cost of bringing Larry and Carla back to the Bay Area. 🙂
The 21st Annual Rietberg Concert will feature handbells for the very first time ever! Over the years, these concerts have featured many accomplished organists, and we’re excited to bring our handbell music to this year’s event. We’ll be playing a variety of 8-bell duets in this informal Sunday afternoon concert. There will be well-known hymn arrangements, and some more-unusual traditional pieces from different countries. We might even squeeze in a couple of Christmas carols! Organist Linda Strouf and flutist Mary Van Voorst will also make an appearance. We’d love to see you there too!
Here’s all the information you need:
The 21st Annual Rietberg Concert in Holland, Michigan
Can’t make it to the Rietberg Concert?
If you can’t make it to the Rietberg Concert, but you’d like to book a handbell performance at your own event, please get in touch with us. We can provide handbell music for private or church concerts, as well as for wedding ceremonies and Christmas events. We can also play our duets for worship services. We’re based in Holland, Michigan, but happy to travel.
If you’d like to see and listen to some of our handbell duets in your own home, you might enjoy our YouTube channel!
The 2018 Rietberg Concert will feature handbells for the very first time! We’ll be the guest musicians for the 21st annual performance, which will take place here in Holland.
This informal Sunday afternoon program will feature some of our favorite hymns and traditional melodies, all played using just eight bells. We’ll talk about the history of our instrument and some of the techniques we use. We’ll also give you some information about our music, and share how handbells brought us together across thousands of miles. Did you know that we first met online on a website for handbell musicians? Handbells brought us together, when we were living thousands of miles apart!
Organist Linda Strouf will join us for a couple of pieces. There will be a reception afterwards. We’ll be happy to talk more, and answer any questions you might have. Ask us about handbells, music in general, or what brought us from California and England, all the way to Holland!
The 2018 Rietberg Concert will take place at Third Reformed Church, 111 W 13th St, Holland, MI 49423 on Sunday, November 4th, 2018 at 3:00pm. The concert is a tribute to the 45 years of service of Roger and Evelyn Rietberg to the music program of Third Reformed Church.
Handbell duo Larry and Carla will be the guest musicians for the 21st Annual Rietberg Concert. This concert is a tribute to the 45 years of service of Roger and Evelyn Rietberg to the music program of Third Reformed Church.
Larry and Carla are originally from California and England, and were brought together by their passion for handbells. They moved to Holland in August 2016, and are members of Third Reformed Church. This informal Sunday afternoon program will feature hymns and traditional melodies, all played using just eight bells.
Thanks to everyone who came to the Zeeland Community Band concert at Pumpkinfest!
We’ve been living here in Michigan for more than two years now, so we’re used to the idea that the weather can be unpredictable. It’s not unlike English weather. The rain tends to appear at those most inconvenient times when you have something fun and outdoorsy planned. That was the case this weekend at the annual Zeeland PumpkinFest! The Zeeland Community Band’s annual PumpkinFest concert was meant to be at Vande Luyster Park. Instead, we all moved to an indoor location at the Howard Miller Library. Congratulations if you managed to find us!
We were concerned that our audience might not get the message about the change of location. We pictured a crowd of disappointed people sitting forlornly in lawn chairs on sodden grass in front of the gazebo. However, we needn’t have worried. So many people arrived at the library that we had to fetch more chairs!
Zeeland Community Band director, Rose Wiersma, welcomes everyone to the concert
The PumpkinFest concert is an ideal opportunity for orange accessories, and band members did not disappoint!
This year’s concert repertoire
This year’s concert repertoire included a few spooky Halloween-style pieces, as well as some popular marches. There was even some movie music! We started with The Billboard March, followed by Into the Storm, a very appropriate piece for this time of year! Ghost Riders in the Sky followed. After that, we strung our bells into “bell trees” for Highlights from Harry Potter. This is an unusual technique for us, as we usually play all our pieces holding two bells in each hand.
Bell trees, where the bells are gently struck with mallets instead of being played in the usual way
Eagle Lake March was followed by Clowns, then we enjoyed another opportunity to play the well-known Danse Macabre. This one involves some quick bell-changes for us! We first played this piece a year ago in concert with the Coopersville Community Concert Band.
March of the Marionettes was next on the program, followed by The Pink Panther. Band director Rose took a few moments to read to the younger members of the audience!
The next piece was the Sandpaper Ballet, which wouldn’t be complete without sand blocks and audience participation!
Handing out sand blocks to the audience!
The next piece was the fun Comedians Galop. The concert concluded with On the Mall, with another opportunity for the audience to participate with singing and whistling. Audience members rose to their feet with generous applause, which the band members appreciated. Finally, the band played Valley Forge as an encore. It takes a lot of effort to put together a concert, and it was reassuring to know that the rain hadn’t dampened anyone’s enthusiasm!
Thanks to everyone who came to this year’s PumpkinFest concert!
Thanks to the Zeeland Community Band for including us!
We thoroughly enjoyed being part of this year’s PumpkinFest concert, and we’re thankful to the Zeeland Community Band for continuing to welcome us as performers with their ensemble. This is a community band in every sense of the word; new members (with at least high school proficiency on their chosen instrument) are always welcome. Leave a comment below if you’d like more information about that, and we’ll connect you with the right people. The band continues to perform in local venues, with music that’s popular with people of all ages. It’s truly a privilege to work with these talented and enthusiastic musicians.
To find out more about the Zeeland Community Band, check out their website. We’ll be performing in concert with the band again at their Christmas Concert on Monday, December 10th, at the Cityside Middle School Auditorium, and we’d love to see you there!
Michigan handbell duo Larry and Carla will be presenting a program of handbell duets at Fall Fest, the annual event held at North Park Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids.
The program will start at 6:30pm and last 45-50 minutes. More details will follow!
Larry and Carla will be adding the music of handbells to the Zeeland Community Band’s outdoor concert during the PumpkinFest event in Downtown Zeeland.
The concert will be held at Vander Luyster Square Park (where the gazebo is). If it rains, we’ll move the concert indoors – to the activity room in the Howard Miller Public Library.
This event is open to the public, and is free to attend, although donations to the band are welcome and appreciated.
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!
One of the first photos taken of us together! On our way to Mackinac Island, August 2010
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.
Treble sectional rehearsal at this year’s Bay View Week of Handbells
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.
Position 7! Plus a few extras, because Carla is a bell-hog, of course.
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.
With Fred Gramann at the 2016 Week of Handbells
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 Deep Pit – bass bells at Bay View!
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.
Together outside the John M Hall Auditorium – before the concert
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.
Cladopora (left) and Petoskey stones. Carla waded into the lake to get these!
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.”
Will you be at our handbell concert in Harbor Springs? We’ll be presenting a concert of 8-bell duets on Sunday, August 12th, at First Presbyterian Church. Here’s the concert program! As you can see, our concert will include a mixture of well-loved hymns, and beautiful traditional pieces from several different countries. We’ll also be joined by the Kirk Ringers of First Presbyterian Church for several pieces.
We’re looking forward to this concert, in such a beautiful part of Michigan. Admission to the concert is free, with an opportunity for a free-will offering. We hope to see you there!
Would you like to host a handbell duet concert?
If you can’t attend our handbell concert in Harbor Springs, you might enjoy some of our handbell duet videos on our YouTube channel.
If a live performance is more your style, and you’re considering hosting a handbell duet concert at your church, please get in touch with us. As a handbell duo, we take up less space than a traditional handbell choir, and our transportation costs are lower. We can often combine a concert with playing our duets for a morning worship service too! We’re based in Holland, Michigan, but we’re happy to travel.
Handbell duo Larry and Carla will present a concert of handbell duets for residents at this senior living community. This is a private event.
