Handbell ringers from Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 will be going to Mackinac Island for a weekend of handbell music, education, fellowship and fun, with guest conductor Fred Gramann!
Larry and Carla will be performing the opening concert on Friday evening.
Christmas bells!
Larry and Carla will be presenting a program of Christmas music, and talking about the history and techniques involved in playing handbells. This is a private event in Holland, Michigan.
Since moving to West Michigan, we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with the Zeeland Community Band. It’s been fun to play our handbells in concerts and performances with this talented and enthusiastic group of musicians.
The Zeeland Community Band has been running since January 1994. The band aims to give adult musicians an opportunity to play their instruments in a band setting, even if they haven’t played since school or college. The group meets on Monday evenings in Zeeland, and Rose Wiersma is their director. They play at local events such as PumpkinFest, and regularly give performances at senior living communities. Don’t miss their popular Christmas concerts!
The band is planning some exciting concerts for the next few months, and we’ll be joining the group for some of the performances:
March 19th, 2018 at 6:30pm – A concert for residents and guests at Royal Park Place in Zeeland, MI (with handbells)
April 26th, 2018 at 7:15pm – A concert for residents and guests at Freedom Village, Holland, MI (No handbells in this concert)
April 30th, 2018 at 7:30pm – In concert with the Coopersville Community Concert Band in Zeeland, MI (with handbells)
Check our website and Facebook page for more details coming soon!
Larry and Carla will be adding handbell music to this concert by the Zeeland Community Band, for residents and guests at Royal Park Place.
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!
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!
Following our recent performances with the Campanelli Handbell Ensemble during their tour of the USA from Estonia – the full concert from Estonian House, New York City, is now available to watch on YouTube.
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.
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:
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!
At long last, we can tell our secret, and share some exciting news. Larry’s new original composition for handbells is Coronation and Triumphant Exultation!
Larry received some wonderful news at last year’s Bay View Week of Handbells. He’s the recipient of the Donald E. Allured Original Composition Award! His mission was to write an original piece for the Bay View Week of Handbells in 2017.
The Donald E. Allured Fund was created in 1993. Donald Allured was a composer and director that handbell musicians will always remember for his outstanding contribution to the art. The fund is used to commission original handbell music. Most importantly, each composition must exemplify the standards and quality that Dr. Don Allured would have expected. For that reason, it’s a great honor to receive this award.
Larry dedicated Coronation and Triumphant Exultation (Crùnadh agus Iolach) to Maestro Carl Wiltse, our leader, mentor and friend. This year will be Carl’s 15th and final year as director of the Bay View Week of Handbells. The piece is a musical story about the accession of a Scottish king to his throne. It opens with a bagpipe-like section played on bells. Next comes a reflective middle section. Finally, a majestic closing section as the king takes his throne, and the people rejoice.
2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the Bay View Week of Handbells. The Thursday night concert will feature the very first performance of Larry’s original composition. The concert will take place Thursday, August 17, at 8:00pm. As usual, it will be held at the John M. Hall Auditorium, in Petoskey, Michigan. We’ll post more information as the event approaches!
Coronation and Triumphant Exultation is for 5-8 octaves of handbells, with optional 5 octaves of handchimes. It’s published by AGEHR Publishing (AG58002). Best of all, it’s Level 4, so not as challenging as some of Larry’s other compositions have been!
Finally, if you have any questions you’d like to ask Larry about Coronation and Triumphant Exultation, please contact us. Larry is always happy to talk about his music. Alternatively, if you’d like to commission an original composition for your handbell choir, please ask!
We’re excited to be making our first-ever trip to Georgia soon – to present a concert of handbell duets at Christ United Methodist Church in Warner Robins. We’re already looking for our summer clothes, and anticipating a big change in temperature between Michigan and Georgia!
We’ll be performing some of our favourite 8-bell handbell duets. Our concert will include a selection of hymns, classical pieces, and traditional folk melodies. We’ll be playing Holy Manna, which was one of the very first pieces we ever performed as a duo. We’ll also play the poignant Australia ballad Moreton Bay, and several new and unpublished arrangements. It will be an opportunity to hear our eight-bell arrangements of the beautiful Japanese melody Sakura, and the energetic Gwerzy; a piece originally written by members of the Irish band Kila. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions, and to find out more about our handbells and how we play them.
On Sunday, April 2nd, we’ll play some more of our duets in the 10:00am service at Christ United Methodist Church. Then we’ll return to our home in Holland, Michigan, to get ready for our next performance!
We hope you’ll join us for our handbell concert in Warner Robins!
Thanks to the Zeeland Community Band and their director Rose Wiersma! We were happy to be invited to be part of another of their community concerts. We enjoyed performing for residents and guests at Freedom Village, a senior living community here in Holland, Michigan. It’s exciting to find out how much the sound of handbells can add to a band performance! The band had put in many hours of rehearsal for this concert, and their hard work paid off. It was an interesting and varied performance, with many positive comments from the audience afterwards.
The Zeeland Community band is a community ensemble in every sense. Its mission is to encourage adults to pick up their band instruments and make music! Even people who haven’t played in many years can find a place in this welcoming ensemble. The band rehearses on Monday evenings in Zeeland. You can find out more on their website, and get in touch if you have questions.
As you can see from the smiling faces, the band members enjoyed this performance too. We look forward to working with this talented group again!
