Tag Archives: Handbells

The Kara Annual Service of Remembrance

Last night we played our handbell duets at the Kara Annual Service of Remembrance.

Kara is based here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s an organization that provides grief support for children, teens, families and adults who have lost someone close to them. Kara also helps families dealing with terminal illness.

The annual candlelight service is a meaningful event where members of the community gather to light candles of memory, hope, courage and love. There’s live music, memories, laughter, tears, and a lot of support and genuine caring. After the service, there’s a reception, where people can gather to chat and share their stories with others in the community.

Annual Service of Remembrance - Kara

This is the third year we’ve taken part in the Kara Annual Service of Remembrance. We always find it a moving and humbling experience to share our music in an atmosphere of such love and support. There is grief too, of course, but so much courage and caring.

Handbell music seems to fit very well in remembrance services. People find comfort in hearing well-known hymns such as Amazing Grace, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing and Just As I Am. We’ve also played secular songs like Ma Navu and Moreton Bay – to soothe the soul and help to bring peace.

Our thanks go to all at Kara for inviting us to be part of this meaningful event.

Handbells at the Kara Annual Service of Remembrance

The Angel Gabriel – a New 8-Bell Carol

The holiday season is upon us, and we know there’s not much time left to learn new handbell music in time for Christmas. But here’s just one more 8-bell arrangement – the pretty Basque carol The Angel Gabriel From Heaven Came, also known as Gabriel’s Message.

If you’d like to play The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came, it’s available for purchase and download from our music site.

Information about Choraegus handbell music

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell ensemble – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Please note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs, so you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide, designed to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you’re looking for, and we’ll do what we can to help!

The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came - 8-bell

Our Photos from The Nutcracker Are Now on Facebook

It’s always fun to share our photos from The Nutcracker weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Congratulations to the Pacific Ballet Academy on a successful weekend of performances! We saw the show on Sunday and enjoyed it a lot. There’s something about this particular ballet performance that that makes it such a wonderful start to the holiday season. The dancers are talented and the whole production is just beautiful.

We had a great time playing selections from our 8-bell The Nutcracker Collection. Those pieces are challenging but fun to play! We enjoyed playing other Christmas and holiday handbell duets too. We played in the lobby for audience members before each performance and during the intermission. This annual event is a lot of fun for us! We always feel as if we almost set up camp in the Performing Arts Center for the Nutcracker performance weekend each year. We bring our laptops, work and eat while we’re in downtown Mountain View, and only go home at the end of each day, after the final performance is over. It’s like a festive mini vacation weekend!

If you’d like to see our photos from The Nutcracker, they’re now on our Facebook page!

photos from The Nutcracker, handbells

The Nutcracker, at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

We’ll be spending the coming weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. We’ll be playing handbell duets in the lobby before the Pacific Ballet Academy’s performances of The Nutcracker.

The Nutcracker - handbell duo

This wonderful ballet performance is always one of the highlights of the holiday season here in Mountain View. It’s an annual tradition for the Pacific Ballet Academy, and we look forward to it every year. We’ll be playing a selection of popular handbell pieces before each of the six performances. You’ll hear our 8-bell Nutcracker duets, as well as many traditional Christmas and holiday carols, all played with just eight bells, in the 4-in-hand style.

This year is the 24th year of these Pacific Ballet Academy performances. There will be two shows each day – at 1:00pm and 6:00pm on Friday, November 28th and Saturday November 29th. Performances on Sunday, November 30th will be at 12:30pm and 4:00pm. Come early to gather with other guests before the shows, and listen to the sweet sound of handbell music to get us all in the mood for this exciting annual holiday tradition!

The Nutcracker - Mountain View

The Pacific Ballet Academy students have been working hard to make this another great season of Nutcracker shows. We hope to see you at one of the performances!

A Snail’s Pace, for 5-8 Octave Handbells

A Snail’s Pace is an original composition. Larry wrote it with a plush orange-pink-and-purple snail in mind. This laid-back jazz piece will challenge you – but you’ll enjoy it!

Thanks to the friendly bunch of folks at Pierpont Productions, we’re able to bring you this video. It was recorded at the Bay View Week of Handbells concert in August 2014.

A Snail’s Pace is written for 5-8 octaves and handbells, plus 5 octaves of handchimes. It’s Level 5+. We think you’ll love playing it!

How to get the sheet music

If you’d like to play this piece, it’s available for purchase and download from Choraegus. Purchasing the choir copy of this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to fifteen copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. You can also buy an individual copy for your personal use only. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Please note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs, so you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!

A Snail's Pace - Larry Sue handbell composition

Back Together in California!

After a week apart, we’re back together in California! We were reunited at the airport in San Francisco yesterday. We’re so glad to be back in the same time zone again – especially as we did so badly at staying in touch during our time apart.

Before Carla moved to California, we coped with our long-distance relationship by talking on Skype at crazy hours of the night, and depriving ourselves of sleep. During our week apart, we had a “been there, done that, don’t want to do it again” attitude. We just exchanged a few messages each day, when we had the opportunity. Knowing that the distance was only going to be there for a week helped a lot!

Back together in California
Yay! Together at the airport!


Now we’re happy to be back together in the same time zone. We’re ready to get back into rehearsing for the run-up to the holiday season. Our next performance will be at a Thanksgiving Dinner for international, veterans, EOPS, homeless and out-of-state students at Foothill College, Los Altos on Tuesday evening.

Would you like to book us to play handbells at your holiday event?

You still have time to book us to play duets at your Christmas or holiday event. Take a look at our videos, and contact us if you’d like to find out more!

New Handbell Music – Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella – for 8 Bells

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella is a very pretty French carol, originally written in the 16th century.  Here’s our 8-bell arrangement:

If you’d like to play Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

More information about this music

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Please note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella - handbells

It’s Not Too Late to Sign Up for Redding Bronze!

There’s still time to sign up for the Redding Bronze handbell event, which takes place over the weekend of January 30th and 31st, 2015. Handbell musicians will gather to form northern California’s premier handbell ensemble. We’ll prepare music in advance, then gather together that weekend to rehearse and put the finishing touches to the music. Then we’ll perform a public concert at First Presbyterian Church in Redding. Larry is looking forward to being the guest director for this event!

We’re excited about the repertoire for Redding Bronze. The concert will include such favorites as Michael Joy’s lively Dorian Dance and Lee Afdahl’s beautiful arrangement of Beach Spring. Take a look at the Facebook event page for more details – and sign up for Redding Bronze soon. Spaces are limited, so don’t delay!

There is no charge to attend the Redding Bronze concert on Saturday, January 31st. Donations are gratefully received, to help with the cost of this event.

sign up for Redding Bronze

Any questions?

If you have any questions about this event, we’ll be happy to help. If we don’t have the information you need, we can put you in touch with someone else who can help. Contact us and let us know what information you need!

Welcome to our New Website!

Welcome to our new website – larryandcarla.com!

We hope this website will be a helpful alternative to our music site. Apart from being easier to remember and spell (courageous? choragus? choreagus?), it will be a place to find more information about booking us for handbell performances. As a former long-distance couple, we’ll also share news about our life together now that we’re married and living in the same place. We’ll post our thoughts about how to survive a long-distance relationship, and getting through the U.S. visa application process.

This website will also have more purple.

our new website - larry and carla

We’ll continue to publish our handbell and choral music on our Choraegus site; nothing will change there. This new site will be an additional way for us to connect with the world! We’ll still have our Facebook page too, and you’re welcome to connect with us there. You can share your own long-distance relationship story, or ask us questions. We also love to hear from other handbell musicians about what you’re currently working on. If your handbell choir has played one if Larry’s arrangements, we’d love to see a video of your performance!

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our new website, or our music site, please contact us!