Larry and Carla will be playing Christmas handbell music at the Kerstmarkt – an open-air European-style Christmas market located at the 8th Street Marketplace in Downtown Holland. Come and listen to beautiful festive music as you shop for unique, handcrafted gifts and locally-made holiday treats. Coffee and hot cider will be available to help you stay warm!
Handbell duets in Downtown Holland!
Since moving here in 2016, we’ve enjoyed street performing in Downtown Holland. Thank you to everyone who stopped to listen to our music at the first of this year’s Downtown Holland Street Performer Series. We played our handbell duets for more than two hours on Thursday evening, in perfect spring weather.
If you missed the first evening, the 2019 Street Performer Series runs on Thursdays until the end of August, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. We’ll be performing again on the following dates:
We also play our handbell duets in Downtown Holland at other times during the summer. Look out for us on 8th Street on Sunday afternoons! If you’re going to be visiting Downtown Holland and you’d like to know when we’re planning our next street performance, please contact us. Sreet performing tends to be weather-dependent, so here in Michigan it’s often a last-minute decision!
Thursdays evenings are always fun in Downtown Holland. Stores and restaurants are open, and 8th Street is full of entertainment. The event is free to attend and enjoy, but tips for the performers are appreciated!
Larry and Carla at the Downtown Holland Street Performer Series
Larry and Carla will be playing handbell duets as part of the 2019 Downtown Holland Street Performer Series. Look for us outside Resthaven Warm Friend on June 13th!
We’ll also be performing outside the Knickerbocker Theatre on July 29th, and again outside Resthaven Warm Friend on August 29th.
This event is sponsored by the Gentex Corporation and supported by Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs through the Holland Area Arts Council.
We’re coming to the end of our exciting holiday season of Christmas handbell performances. This was our busiest season yet, and we’d like to thank everyone who helped to make the last few weeks so much fun!
Our Christmas started early this year, with a Holiday Open House event. We enjoyed playing handbell duets at Ditto Upscale Resale, here in Holland. It was a great way to welcome the season. It was also good to check that we still had the stamina to play for three hours at a time without collapsing. It’s a useful skill when we play our duets at the Salvation Army Red Kettle!
We continued our season with performances at several church events. These included a Christmas By Candlelight event in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and our first visit to Cultivate Community Church in Hamilton.
We’ve very much enjoyed being part of the arts community here in Holland. It’s been fun to share our music at community events such as the Kerstmarkt. This is an annual European-style Christmas market in downtown Holland. When Carla lived in England, a highlight of Christmas was being able to visit traditional markets in London, Bath and Lincoln. Even though the market here in Holland is on a much smaller scale, the atmosphere is the same. The chilly weather also makes it extra festive! Our bells survived the cold, and we managed to play for several hours on a Saturday morning and Friday evening. Here’s a video of one of the pieces we played there:
If you’d like to play this piece, the sheet music is available from Choraegus!
This year we played Christmas music for residents and their guests at several senior living communities and care home Christmas parties. It’s always fun to share our Christmas music with appreciative audiences of all ages. We were excited to make another visit to the Van Andel Institute, to welcome guests to their employees’ holiday party. The Van Andel Institute definitely gets the prize for the most-impressive Christmas tree!
We were happy to continue our collaboration with the Zeeland Community Band, joining with them for their popular annual Christmas concert.
Ditto Upscale Resale, Holland, MI
The Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland, MI
Friendship Christian Reformed Church, Byron Center, MI
Century Club of Holland, MI
Hope College Academy of Senior Professionals (HASP)
P.E.O. Sisterhood of Holland, MI
Spring Valley Church, Kalamazoo, MI
Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI
First Presbyterian Church of Holland, MI
Cultivate Community Church, Hamilton, MI
D&W Fresh Market, Holland, MI
The Salvation Army of Holland, MI
The Village of Heather Hills, Grand Rapids, MI
Zeeland Community Band
Freedom Village of Holland, MI
Resthaven Care Center, Holland, MI
Friends of the Gary Byker Library, Hudsonville, MI
Resthaven Maple Woods, Holland, MI
Grandville Ladies’ Literary Club, Grandville, MI
Kentwood Women’s Club, Kentwood, MI
Third Reformed Church of Holland, MI
Thanks to everyone who helped to make this such an exciting holiday season for us. If you’d like to book us for your event in the coming year, please let us know!
Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
After more than six years of arranging and performing eight-bell Christmas music, we finally managed to publish an arrangement of the popular Austrian carol Silent Night.
We recorded our video at the Kerstmarkt. This is a European-style Christmas market that takes place annually in downtown Holland, Michigan. It was a cold, breezy and rainy Saturday morning, but it’s still one of our favorite events of the holiday season.
If you’re still looking for Christmas music for handbells, Silent Night is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. For Christmas 2018, you can get it for the special price of just $3, with permission to print up to 4 copies for your group.
If you haven’t bought music from us before, please read the licensing agreement before making your purchase. We also recommend our step-by-step guide to buying music from Choraegus. As with all our music for handbells, Silent Night comes to you as a digital download. You’ll be responsible for printing the music yourself, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.
If you have any questions about our music for handbells, Silent Night in particular, or anything else on our website, please ask! You can look at our Frequently-Asked Questions, but if you don’t find the information you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Christmas bells!
Larry and Carla will be playing Christmas handbell music at the Kerstmarkt – an open-air European-style Christmas market located at the 8th Street Marketplace in Downtown Holland.
Larry and Carla at the Downtown Holland Street Performer Series
Larry and Carla will be playing handbell duets as part of the 2018 Downtown Holland Street Performer Series. Look for us outside R.I.T. Music on August 9th!
This event is sponsored by the Gentex Corporation and supported by Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs through the Holland Area Arts Council.
Larry and Carla at the Downtown Holland Street Performer Series
Larry and Carla will be playing handbell duets as part of the 2018 Downtown Holland Street Performer Series. Look for us outside Resthaven Warm Friend on July 19th!
We’ll also be performing outside Tin Ceiling on July 5th, and outside R.I.T. Music on August 9th.
This event is sponsored by the Gentex Corporation and supported by Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs through the Holland Area Arts Council.
