handbell clinician Archives

At the HMA Area 8 Festival in Omaha, we told lots of people: “You’ll find all that information on our website!” We’ve now put all the information together in one place, to make it easy to find.

Bass Handbell Techniques

If you were at Larry’s class on Bass Techniques, or Bass Layout/Teamwork, and you’d like to learn more, you can find out everything you need to know and more by reading The Bass Ringer’s Notebook. This book is available for purchase from Choraegus. If you order a copy, wherever you are, you’ll be able to hear us rejoicing here in Michigan. We’ll lovingly package up your book, and will make a special trip to the Post Office to mail it to you. Truly, we will appreciate you forever. If you missed Larry’s classes, maybe it’s even more important to buy his book!

The Bass Ringer's Notebook — The Bass Ringer’s Notebook – 2nd Edition. So much prettier than the 1st edition!

British-Style Four in Hand Ringing

If you went to one of Carla’s British-Style Four-in-Hand classes, and your hands forgot everything the minute you left the room, or if you missed the classes but still have some curiosity about this strange alternative multiple bell technique – do not fear. You can find more information (with extra pictures) in this detailed article on our site. If you’re wondering where you can find that free download of Happy Birthday to practise your newfound skills without spending any money, you can find it here!

Adventures in 8-Bell Music

If you enjoyed our 8-bell music class on Saturday morning, or if you missed it and would like to know more, you can find lots of 8-bell music available for purchase from Choraegus. Please note that our sheet music is designed to be downloaded and printed out by YOU. We recommend reading our step-by-step guide to make the process easier. Don’t sit and wait for the music to arrive by mail, because it won’t reach you that way. Once you’ve purchased the music, you are allowed to print out a certain number of copies for your group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need!

Questions about anything in our classes?

If you have questions about anything you heard in any of our classes, or anything you wish we’d covered, or problems with any of the techniques we demonstrated, you’re always welcome to get in touch with us.

Our 8-Bell Duet Concert

Many of the pieces we performed at our lunchtime concert on Friday are available for purchase and download from Choraegus. A few of the pieces haven’t yet been published – for example Creator of the Stars of Night and Calliope House. However, we plan to make them all available before the end of this year. We’re hoping to get new Advent and Christmas pieces published by the end of August, once we’re back from our annual trip to the Bay View Week of Handbells.

We had so much fun at the HMA Area 8 festival! Several people asked us if we’re available for further concert performances, and events such as worship services and weddings. The answer is yes, we are, so if you’re interested in booking us for an event in the future, please contact us!

HMA Area 8 Festival - handbell duet concert — Our 8-Bell Duet Concert at the Area 8 festival

BronzeFest

We had a great time with the Area 8 BronzeFest Ensemble – Larry directing and Carla playing. Three of the pieces performed in the concert were original compositions written by Larry. You can find A Minor Crash, Rescue and The Final Crossing on our music site, along with many other compositions and arrangements for handbell choir. We’re also pleased to be able to present Susan T. Nelson’s beautiful Elysium, which was also performed by the BronzeFest Ensemble.

Any questions about our music?

If there’s anything you’d like to ask, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!

We enjoyed our trip to the Area 8 Festival in Omaha!

The last time we’d been in Omaha was for the River City Radical Ring in 2013. We were very happy to be invited back to direct, perform and teach at the 2018 event. Besides, what’s not to love about a 600-mile road-trip?

Larry on the way to Omaha — Larry just loves a road trip!

Lots of driving!

The journey from Holland, Michigan took us more than ten hours, and we were glad we’d decided to travel the day before the festival! We arrived in Omaha in plenty of time to enjoy an evening concert by Rezound! Handbell Ensemble before settling in for the night.

Area 8 Festival in Omaha — We made it to Omaha!

Music and classes at the Bring It! Ring It! festival

The festival began on Thursday. Larry was looking forward to directing the BronzeFest ensemble, preparing for a Saturday afternoon concert. The chosen pieces for BronzeFest were: Festival Sanctus (Cathy Moklebust), Elysium (Susan T. Nelson), Rescue (Larry Sue), Sympatico (Jason Krug), Song of the Flowers (Kevin Mazimas Ko), The Final Crossing (Larry Sue) and A Minor Crash (Larry Sue).

With repertoire like that, there was work to do, but it was wonderful to see how well prepared the BronzeFest participants were. It meant that we could use our limited rehearsal time together to do more than just learn notes. Much progress was made between the first rehearsal on Thursday and the concert on Saturday.

The Area 8 Board of Directors had done a great job of organizing for festival participants to be able to attend a wide variety of classes in addition to rehearsals. There were classes with such titles as “Processionals”, “In-Depth Score Study”, “If Bells Grew on Trees” and “There’s More than One Way to Peel a Banana”. Carla taught several classes on British-Style Four-in-Hand Ringing, and Larry taught classes on Ringing Bass Bells and Bass Bell Layout.

Area 8 Festival in Nebraska - bass ringing — One of Larry’s Bass Handbell Techniques classes

A concert by Timbré from California

Thursday ended with a banquet for all festival participants, followed by a concert presented by Timbré, a lyrical percussion ensemble based in Southern California. Their program, entitled “She Dreams the Stars” featured poetry, live and electronic music, and dance, telling the story of a young woman on a journey of discovery. The show was entertaining and thought-provoking, the costumes were sparkly, and it was good to see our friends from Timbré again. Some of them had played handbells at our wedding in California back in 2012!

Timbré - handbell concert — Timbré – She Dreams the Stars

Our handbell duet concert

Friday was the day of our own 8-bell duet concert. We’d chosen some of our favourite pieces from the repertoire we’d used for the opening concert at the Area 5 Festival on Mackinac Island earlier this year.

Larry and Carla handbell duo — Our 8-Bell Duet Concert at the Area 8 festival

The pieces we played were: Creator of the Stars of Night, Holy Manna, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, What Child Is This, Sakura, I Vow to Thee, My Country, Calliope House and To God Be the Glory – all arranged by Larry Sue, and all using only 8 bells each (but not necessarily the same eight!) We appreciated the kind and positive comments we received after our concert. It was interesting to find that there were many people who hadn’t previously imagined that so much music could be made using so few bells!

Showcase concerts

On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed a showcase concert – by Des Moines Concert Handbells (directed by Patrick Gagnon) and A Lovely Shade of Blue Handbell Duet. Lauren and Eric are skilled musicians, and most of their pieces used three octaves of bells. However, their first piece was our 8-bell arrangement of Angus MacDonald’s lively slip jig Chloe’s Passion. Our only regret from the festival is that we didn’t find a few spare moments to try playing it together as a double duet!

Larry and Carla, A Lovely Shade of Blue — Yay! Two handbell duos in the same place!

Adventures in 8-bell music!

Saturday was the final day of the festival. Our day started at the ridiculously early time of 8:00am, so we needed coffee for our “Adventures in Eight-Bell Music” class! We enjoyed introducing people to the idea that it’s not always necessary to use dozens of bells to make music that’s worth listening to.

HMA Area 8 Festival - 8-bell music — Larry directs a read-through of “Kingsfold” at our 8-Bell Music class on Saturday morning

We enjoyed a HymnFest presented by River City Ringers, directed by Joyce Miller. The group had commissioned a piece from Cathy Moklebust in Joyce’s honor, and had somehow managed to rehearse it in secret. What a wonderful surprise that turned out to be!

After one more rehearsal, it was time for the BronzeFest concert, which was so much fun! All seven pieces went well, and we think (hope!) everyone enjoyed the experience. Here’s a recording of the final piece in the program – Larry’s original composition A Minor Crash:

Special thanks go to Alex Guebert for writing and playing a cajon part for A Minor Crash, and to Lily Acatina, who stepped in at the last minute to sight-read the trumpet part in The Final Crossing on keyboard. Both these musicians are members of Timbré, and we appreciated their willingness to share their talent at short notice.

The final festival concert

After the BronzeFest concert, we had just one more class each to teach, then we were free to relax at the Festival Concert, directed by Tim Waugh and Barbara Meinke. The festival participants performed a varied concert of music ranging from O Worship the King (Michael Mazzatenta) to the Sesame Street Theme (Michael Glasgow) – and we enjoyed it all! The concert was accompanied by the buzzing of various audience members’ phones, as flash-flood warnings appeared and thunder rumbled overhead! We finished the evening with a reception and an opportunity to catch up with some of the friends we hadn’t seen for a while – including Tim Waugh. He and Carla had previously met at a handbell event in England in 2009!

Larry and Carla with Tim Waugh at the Area 8 Festival in Nebraska — With Tim Waugh at the end of the festival

Thanks to everyone involved!

Our thanks go to the Handbell Musicians of America Area 8 Board for inviting us to be part of this wonderful event. Thanks also to everyone who participated in the BronzeFest Ensemble or attended our classes. We felt very welcome as visitors to HMA Area 8. We hope we won’t have to wait another five years before we make it to Nebraska again!