Tag Archives: handbell duo

Handbell Duet Concert in Los Altos, California

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. 🙂

Christmas Handbell Duets in Hudsonville

December 12 at 1:45 pm – 2:30 pm EST

Michigan handbell duo Larry and Carla will be back for the second time with a program of Christmas handbell duets, presented by Friends of the Gary Byker Memorial Library. Exact time and further details will be confirmed closer to the date!

Details

Date:
December 12
Time:
1:45 pm – 2:30 pm EST
Event Categories:
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Event Tags:
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Gary Byker Memorial Library of Hudsonville

3338 Van Buren St
Hudsonville, MI 49426 United States + Google Map

Thanks for an Exciting Holiday Season!

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!

An exciting holiday season for Larry and Carla
Christmas handbell duets at the Ditto Upscale Resale Holiday Open House

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!

Back to the Van Andel Institute

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!

Larry Sue, handbell musician
Larry at the 2018 Van Andel Institute Employees’ Holiday Party

We were happy to continue our collaboration with the Zeeland Community Band, joining with them for their popular annual Christmas concert.

Zeeland Community Band
The Zeeland Community Band, directed by Rose Wiersma – Christmas Concert
Carla Sue, handbell musician
Carla at the Zeeland Community Band Christmas Concert

Special thanks go to:

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!

exciting holiday season
Christmas by Candlelight at Spring Valley Church, Kalamazoo

Christmas Handbell Duet Concert (Private Event)

December 11 at 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST

Handbell duo Larry and Carla will present a concert of Christmas handbell music for residents and their guests at a senior living community in Jenison, Michigan. This is a private event.

Details

Date:
December 11
Time:
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST
Event Category:
Event Tags:
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Waterford Place

1725 Port Sheldon St
Jenison, MI 49428 United States + Google Map

Need Handbells for a Christmas Event?

Are you looking for handbells for a Christmas event? West Michigan’s smallest handbell choir is here to help. We don’t have a lot of availability left for December, but we’re still open to last-minute bookings!

Handbells are perfect for the holidays!

Handbell music can bring a magical and festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. We can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music. We can provide background music to add that special welcoming touch to your corporate event, community group celebration, winter wedding, or holiday gathering. Nothing says Christmas quite as well as the traditional sound of English handbells. Our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to hotel lobbies, department stores, airports, shopping boutiques, community groups and private house parties alike.

The 2018 holiday season is fast approaching, and we’re looking forward to some festive performances around West Michigan. We’ll be playing our handbell duets at “Christmas by Candlelight” events, corporate holiday parties, Christmas luncheons, and worship services, as well as performing with the Zeeland Community Band in their Christmas concert on December 10th. We’ll be welcoming in the season at the Holiday Open House event at Ditto Upscale Resale on November 16th, and we’ll be celebrating the return of the annual Kerstmarkt (Christmas Market) in Downtown Holland on Friday, November 23rd and Friday, November 30th.

Book a handbell duo for your holiday event!

As a handbell duo, we take up far less room than a traditional bell choir would. That makes us ideal for venues where space is limited! Our holiday schedule is busy this year, but we still have a few dates available, so if you’ need handbells for your Christmas event, you’re welcome to get in touch with us. If we can fit your event into our schedule, we will. If we can’t, let’s plan early for next year!

Contact us with some details about your event, and we’ll check our availability and provide a quote for you. Handbells are the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season!

handbells for a Christmas event - Michigan handbell duo

The Zeeland Community Band Concert at PumpkinFest

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!

concert at Pumpkinfest with handbells

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!

Rose Wiersma, Zeeland Community Band
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!

Zeeland Community Band

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.

Pumpkinfest handbells
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!

ZCB at Pumpkinfest
Zeeland Band at Pumpkinfest

The next piece was the Sandpaper Ballet, which wouldn’t be complete without sand blocks and audience participation!

Pumpkinfest Zeeland
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!

Pumpkinfest concert Zeeland
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!

Book us for the 2017 Christmas and Holiday Season!

The 2017 Christmas and holiday season will soon be upon us! Handbells can bring a magical and festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. We can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music, or provide background music to add that special, welcoming touch to your corporate event, community group celebration, winter wedding, or holiday gathering. Nothing says Christmas quite as well as the traditional sound of English handbells – and our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to hotel lobbies, department stores, shopping boutiques, community groups and private house parties alike.

The 2017 holiday season is fast approaching. We’re looking forward to performances in Jenison, South Olive, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Marne and Holland, Michigan. We’ll be playing our handbell duets at “Christmas by Candlelight” events, corporate holiday parties, Christmas luncheons, and worship services. We’ll also be performing with the Zeeland Community Band in their Christmas concert on December 11th.

We’re probably the smallest community handbell choir in West Michigan. That means we take up far less room than a traditional bell choir would. We’re ideal for venues where space is limited, such as small church sanctuaries, community halls, hotel lobbies, and private homes.

A handbell performance could be exactly what you need for the 2017 Christmas and holiday season! Contact us to request our current fee schedule, ask questions, or book us to enhance your Christmas event with the traditional sound of handbells!

The 2017 Christmas and Holiday season - handbell duo
Christmas – our favorite time of year!

Handbell Duets at the Chapel of the Chimes, Hayward

What do you do when it’s the Fourth of July, and you’ve finished eating party food and having fun with family and friends? The answer is… play handbell duets, of course!

handbell duets at the Chapel of the Chimes

An impromptu handbell duet performance

We were in Hayward, California for a family gathering, and we decided we needed to burn off some of the calories we’d consumed at lunch time. We were driving in the direction of home, and noticed the Chapel of the Chimes. Suddenly looked like a great location for a Concert With No Audience! 

The Chapel of the Chimes is a 61-acre cemetery, crematorium and funeral home complex. It didn’t appear that we’d be disturbing anyone with our music, so we set up our table and bells. We played duets for around forty minutes! It was a great opportunity to play through some of the music for our visit to Los Altos Lutheran Church the following day. We also brought out some of the older pieces we hadn’t played for a very long time!

We had the usual interesting challenges that go with outdoor performances – a strong breeze, traffic noise, and even some festive firecrackers! The location and the sunshine also made it a very stripy-looking performance, as you can see from the video!

The following pieces are on the video:

  • America, the Beautiful
  • Come, Christians, Join to Sing
  • Drink to Me Only
  • Beautiful Dreamer
  • A Mighty Fortress
  • Moreton Bay
  • Great is Thy Faithfulness
  • Danny Boy
  • Botany Bay
  • Earth and All Stars
  • I Need Thee Every Hour
  • The King of Love My Shepherd Is
  • Allegro

We hope you enjoyed our handbell duets at the Chapel of the Chimes. All the pieces we played are available (or coming soon!) from Choraegus. If you’d like to book us for a performance with an audience, please let us know!

Our Concert with Philadelphia Bronze

Larry and Carla concert with Philadelphia Bronze

We were so excited to make our first trip to Philadelphia to perform in a concert as guests of Philadelphia Bronze, a group of talented handbell musicians dedicated to excellence in the art and joy of handbell ringing.

We arrived in Philadelphia in the evening of Thursday, May 28th, and had the opportunity to do some sightseeing on Friday, including a fascinating tour of the Malmark factory where our handbells were made, and a visit to the Liberty Bell. On Saturday we visited Valley Forge Park, and then spent the rest of the day meeting and rehearsing with members of Philadelphia Bronze, before the evening’s concert.

The concert took place on May 30th at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in King of Prussia, and the program was as follows, with our pieces shown in purple, and Philadelphia Bronze’s in… well, bronze-ish, perhaps:

Allegro, from Concerto in A Minor …………………. Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Larry Sue

Fear a’ Bhàta (The Boatman) ………………………… Sìne NicFhionnlaigh, arr. Larry Sue

The Butterfly ……………………………………………….. Irish slip jig, arr. Larry Sue

Fantasy on Kingsfold ……………………………………. KINGSFOLD, arr. Dean Wagner

Jazz Pizzicato ……………………………………………… Leroy Anderson, arr. Martha Lynn Thompson

Great is Thy Faithfulness ………………………………. William Runyan, arr. Larry Sue

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee ……………………….. Ludwig von Beethoven, arr. Larry Sue
(with additional organ score arr. T. Paul Rosas, performed by Ross Boerner)

Silver and Bronze …………………………………………. Larry Sue
(with Martha Alford, flute)

Elegie …………………………………………………………. Jules Massenet, arr. Karen Roth

Fountains of Light, from the “St. Francis Suite” .. Kevin McChesney
(Martha Alford, flute)

Grizzly’s Peak …………………………………………….. “Traditional” Irish-American jig, arr. Larry Sue

Greensleeves ………………………………………………. Traditional English melody, arr. Larry Sue

America, the Beautiful ………………………………….. Samuel A. Ward, arr. Larry Sue

Good Christian Men, Rejoice ………………………….Traditional, arr. Kimberlee F. Strepka

Spiritual Boogie! ………………………………………….. American spirituals, arr. Larry Sue

Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken ………………. F. J. Haydn, arr. Linda McKechnie
(Ross Boerner, organ)

Here is a video of some of the highlights of the evening:

Our sincere thanks go to all the members of Philadelphia Bronze, who made us so welcome – with particular thanks to Martha, their director. We’re also thankful to Risë and Sarah for acting as our tour guides during our trip. We enjoyed every moment of our time in PA, and hope to go back there someday!

We’re always interested in collaborating with other groups – so if you’d like to book us to perform in a concert with your musical group, contact us and let’s find out if we can make it happen!