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.
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 Tin Ceiling on July 5th!
We’ll also be performing outside Resthaven Warm Friend on July 19th, 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.
After a successful application process, we’re excited to announce that we’ve been invited to perform our handbell duets as part of the 2018 Street Performer Series in Downtown Holland!
The Street Performer Series is an annual event here in Holland, Michigan, taking place on Thursday evenings throughout the summer. Downtown Holland comes alive with the sights and sounds of musicians, magicians, circus acts, dancers, face painters and other talented performers. It’s a fun community event, and a great way to spend a summer evening with friends and family.
The 2018 Downtown Holland Street Performer Series starts on Thursday, June 14, and runs for twelve consecutive Thursdays until the end of August, from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
We’ll be performing on the following dates:
Here’s a look at one of our performances from the 2017 series:
Our thanks go to Gentex Corporation for sponsoring this event. We also thank the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs for their support through the Holland Area Arts Council. We’re looking forward to being part of the Street Performers Series this summer!
July 2 at 9:00 am – 11:00 am EDT
Larry and Carla will present a demonstration of handbell duets at a reception with coffee and snacks, for guests at the 2019 Great Lakes Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists. This event will take place at Third Reformed Church of Holland, at 9:00am and again at 10:00am.
It was an honor for us to be invited to be guest artists at the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 Spring Festival on Mackinac Island. We were excited to go back to the island! We’d only visited a couple of times before – in 2010 and 2013 – and hadn’t stayed for more than a few hours.
One of the unusual things about Mackinac Island is you can’t drive your car there! Motorised vehicles have been banned since 1898. For this reason, our journey there began by parking our car in Mackinac City and taking the ferry across to the island.
Being West Michigan’s smallest handbell choir has its advantages. We didn’t need to transport tables, foam pads and multiple cases of bells over to the island. We had just one handcart loaded with our equipment, and we pushed it all the way from the ferry dock, up the hill to Grand Hotel.
We arrived at Grand Hotel on Thursday morning and the staff instantly made us welcome. The hotel hadn’t officially opened for the 2018 season yet. We were fortunate to be able to stay there and enjoy the very special and unique atmosphere. We were also able to observe some of the preparations as the hotel staff prepared for the first guests of the season to arrive. The hotel has 393 guest rooms, and each one is decorated in its own individual style. If you like flowers (particularly geraniums), you’d love Grand Hotel!
Thursday afternoon’s adventure involved some handbell education! We went to Mackinac Island Public School, where a group of us presented a program of music on handbells, flute and keyboard. The event was coordinated by Martha Matthews, with Gary Matthews playing keyboard. Members of the Area 5 Board were also there, to supervise the students with the sets of chimes.
The students were each given a color-coded handchime to play. They were able to play chords to accompany “Amazing Grace” and “Jingle Bells”, with the aid of a chart showing coloured dots. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the students as they played. For most of them, it was their first opportunity to play these instruments. They did very well, learning how to use the correct techniques for playing the chimes and stopping the sound afterwards.
We demonstrated several of our handbell duets for the students. Martha and Gary joined us to perform Silver and Bronze (for handbells and flute) and Ding Dong, Merrily on High (for handbells and piano, with additional soon-to-be-published flute part).
Friday marked the start of the festival, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening meal at the hotel before performing the opening concert in the beautiful theatre there.
Performing a concert for an audience of “handbell people” can be an intimidating experience. There’s definitely some additional pressure involved when performing in front of people who know about handbell stuff! However, handbell people are, in general, a friendly and supportive group. We felt much more relaxed than we’d expected to during our concert. Afterwards, we were pleased to receive some really nice comments from audience members.
On Saturday morning, we had the opportunity to teach a class on 8-bell music. We were pleasantly surprised by how many people arrived for the class! We answered questions about our music, specific techniques involved in playing it, and how to buy our sheet music online. Participants enjoyed played some simple pieces such as Aura Lee, Kingsfold and The Water is Wide. Finally, they tried the more challenging I Saw Three Ships.
During the festival, participants had the chance to attend other interesting classes, such as Artistry and the Big Box of Crayons: Techniques for a Variety of Tone Color and Handbells: a Full-Body Sport, both led by Martha Matthews, Maori Sticks, led by Susan Oxley, Music Theory, led by Ann Wood, and Finale and Handbells, led by Judy Phillips. There was also FredChat – an opportunity to chat with guest conductor Fred Gramann. We enjoyed a fascinating tour of Grand Hotel, where we were able to find out more about the building and its history. We even saw “behind the scenes” in the impressive kitchen!
Throughout the weekend, rehearsals continued in the Grand Hotel Theatre, as the festival participants prepared five pieces, ready to perform at the closing concert. The massed ringing pieces were Acclamation in G Minor (Karen Thompson), Within the Darkest Night (Derek Hakes), Hosanna (Jason Krug), What Child is This (Brenda Austin) and Jubilation (Fred Gramann). Fred Gramann conducted the festival choirs during rehearsals and at the closing concert.
We added two of our eight-bell duets to the concert on Saturday afternoon – Holy Manna and I Vow to Thee, My Country.
The closing concert was well attended, with audience members coming from Grand Hotel and the island. Afterwards we spoke to several people who had never heard handbells before, and wanted to hear more!
We’d have liked to stay longer on the island, but we were playing duets in a worship service in Harbor Springs the following morning. We’d made plans to travel back on the 6:00pm ferry to Mackinac City. Before we left, though, we had time to walk for a while and admire the scenery. We followed a trail of steps, thinking it would lead to a beach. Maybe it would have done, but before we reached the bottom of the steps, the ground was covered in a thick (and sloping) layer of ice. It seemed that winter was as reluctant to leave the island as we were!
It was fun to see the handbell equipment at the Shepler’s ferry dock. Transporting bells, chimes and foam pads is an interesting challenge on an island that doesn’t allow cars. All the equipment had to come to and from the hotel on horse-drawn transport, and it was transferred onto luggage carts to be loaded onto the ferry. Our own equipment was much more manageable, and we were able to wheel our handcart onto the ferry ourselves.
We had an amazing time at the Area 5 Spring Festival on Mackinac Island. Grand Hotel is a dream location for any conference or vacation. It’s a fascinating place, full of history, with people who go out of their way to make guests feel cared about. Our thanks go to the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 for inviting us to be guest artists at this event. We appreciated the opportunity to stay at Grand Hotel and share our music with other handbell musicians and students on the island. We hope to go back there again someday!
Larry and Carla and other musicians will be presenting an educational program of handbell and piano music at this private event on Mackinac Island, as part of the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 Spring Festival.
Hello world! Our websites are working again!
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since this website unexpectedly disappeared into a black hole between two web hosting companies. We’ve been working hard (with a new web hosting company) to get the site up and running again. Fingers crossed, we think that today both websites are working again. May they stay that way!
We apologise to anyone who noticed the website’s absence and missed it while it was gone. We’re hoping there won’t be any “teething problems” with the site in the next few days. However, sometimes things happen – so do let us know if you get any surprise error messages or problems,. We’ll do our best to fix them quickly. Our Choraegus music site has had its fair share of problems too. Thankfully, that’s been up and running for a few days now, and is now working reliably again.
Now would be a great time to go and look for handbell music to purchase, and to book a handbell duet performance!
If you notice any problems with the website – anything missing or still not working properly, please contact us and let us know. Thank you for your patience, and for still being here!
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.
“Thou hidden source of calm repose,
thou all-sufficient love divine,
my help and refuge from my foes,
secure i am, if thou art mine:
and lo, from sin, and grief, and shame,
I hide me, Jesus, in thy name.”
This is an 18th century hymn by Charles Wesley. We hadn’t heard it until very recently! The tune is ST PETERSBURG. If you’re looking for an unusual hymn for your worship service, this could work well. It’s suitable for 3-6 ringers, and it’s available in two bell ranges – either C5-G6 or F5-C7.
Thanks to J.C for joining us for this recording during his recent visit to Michigan!
Sheet music for this new 12-bell arrangement is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. You only need to pay once, and you can print up to 6 copies for your group.
We ask you to read our licensing agreement, and if you’re new to buying our music online, we recommend our step-by-step guide.
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to check our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!
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!
