Handbell ringers from Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 will be going to Mackinac Island for a weekend of handbell music, education, fellowship and fun, with guest conductor Fred Gramann!
Larry and Carla will be performing the opening concert on Friday evening.
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!
Larry and Carla will be adding handbell music to this concert by the Zeeland Community Band, for residents and guests at Royal Park Place.
Today we took an exciting look back at one of our adventures from last summer. We had an opportunity to collaborate with internationally acclaimed Natalia Paruz. the Saw Lady! Natalia is New York City musician who specialises in playing the musical saw. She’s well-known for her NY subway performances!
We were all in New York City to participate in a concert given by Campanelli Handbell Ensemble, who were visiting the USA on tour from their home country of Estonia. Natalia was playing her musical saw for the solo part in Susan T. Nelson’s beautiful “Elegy”. We were playing the handbell duet part in a brand new composition “Mu Süda Ärka Üles“. After rehearsing with Campanelli and their director Inna Lai, we still had some time before the concert. We decided to read through our eight-bell arrangement of “Amazing Grace” together. This is the result:
Somewhere in our archives, we have recordings of a couple more pieces we played that afternoon, and we’ll share those soon! We very much enjoyed our musical collaboration with Natalia, and hope that someday we’ll have the opportunity to do it again!
Yesterday we enjoyed taking part in Linda Strouf’s organ recital Around the Liturgical Year in Chorale Preludes. The recital took place at Grace Episcopal Church here in Holland, Michigan.
Linda has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Hope College since 1988. She is also the Minister of Music at Third Reformed Church, where she plays the organ and piano, and directs the two adult singing choirs and the adult handbell choir. Linda is a champion of newly composed, contemporary organ music. We were very excited to be part of this recital!
Linda Strouf’s organ recital was an interesting and entertaining journey through the church year. The audience clearly enjoyed the music!
The three pieces we performed with Linda were: In the Bleak Midwinter, Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee and Calliope House. We first performed these pieces in California, with organist and composer T. Paul Rosas, who wrote the organ accompaniments. Handbells and organ blend well together!
In the Bleak Midwinter and Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee are available for purchase and download from Choraegus We haven’t yet published Calliope House, but watch this space!
Many thanks to Linda for inviting us to be part of this recital, and to everyone who attended!
We regret that we’re currently unable to offer gift vouchers for the Choraegus site, because of a technical issue that’s outside our control. Thank you to everyone who purchased them! We do hope to be able to bring them back at some future date.
We’re excited to introduce something new on our music site – gift vouchers! You can now purchase and download a gift voucher for $10, $20, $50 or $100, give it to a friend, and let them choose their own music from the wide selection of pieces available on our site. It could be an ideal Christmas or birthday gift for the handbell musician in your life!
There are so many handbell titles on Choraegus that it’s sometimes difficult to choose. We have solo handbell arrangements, music for just 6 bells and piano, 8-bell music… all the way up to full-choir music for 5-8 octaves. There’s straightforward music for beginning or improving ensembles. You’ll also find pieces that will challenge even the most skilled and experienced handbell ensembles. There’s something for everyone!
Don’t forget The Bass Ringer’s Notebook (Second Edition), which is also a great choice for any bass handbell musician or aspiring bucket-slinger. Unlike the gift vouchers and music scores, the book isn’t a downloadable file; it’s an actual book which we will lovingly package up and send to you – so order a copy soon if you need it delivered in time for Christmas!
If you have any questions about Choraegus gift vouchers, or about our music in general, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help.
Our handbells have become a regular part of Zeeland Community Band performances since we moved to Michigan last year. We’ve joined in with their Christmas concerts and summer performances. Now we’re branching out! We’ll be guest artists in a concert with the Coopersville Community Concert Band at the end of this month. We’re looking forward to this new experience!
October Incantations takes place on Monday, October 23 at 7:30pm, at the Coopersville High School Center Stage Theatre. Admission is free, but this community band will appreciate any donations to help with the cost of presenting this concert. The band will be performing many concert band favorites, including Radetzky March, Incantations and Dance, October, Palladio and Danse Macabre.
We’ll be playing our handbells, both with the band and on our own. We’re looking forward to adding some spooky tunes to the evening. The concert will also feature the first performance of the newly-formed Coopersville Community Choir. The band (and the handbell duo) will be in costume, and you are invited to attend in costume too. It’s an opportunity to dig out your Halloween clothes and join in the fun!
We recently celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary. What better way to celebrate than by spending a day at a handbell festival? First Congregational Church in Saginaw hosted a Fall Handbell Festival – Ringing in a New Season, and invited us to take part in the fun.
Someone somewhere forgot to push the “It’s the fall season now!” button. That meant the weather was hot, hot, hot! Around 40 intrepid handbell musicians from churches around the area attended. We gathered together in a very warm church to rehearse and perform under the baton of world-renowned pianist and composer Catherine McMichael. Catherine had written two original compositions for the event, and Dr. Quincy Dobbs was there to play the organ.
Larry enjoyed the opportunity to get his hands on some bass handbells again. He led workshops for festival participants to find out more about bass bell techniques. Carla led well-attended workshops exploring some of the techniques and challenges involved in playing treble bells. We all enjoyed discussing the merits of various multiple bell techniques. Some of the treble ringers worked on weaving a series of bells without crossing their arms! That can be a challenge, but everyone did very well.
Our friend Kim Finison from Lansing (we know him from the Bay View Week of Handbells!) was on hand to help with handbell maintenance and repairs. We all enjoyed a wonderful lunch and great hospitality.
We had a very enjoyable day at the festival. Our thanks go to Jeri at FCC and everyone involved with the huge task of organising the event. We hope to do it all again someday!
Following our recent performances with the Campanelli Handbell Ensemble during their tour of the USA from Estonia – the full concert from Estonian House, New York City, is now available to watch on YouTube.
Estonian House was a wonderful performance venue. The building houses the New York Estonian School, an Estonian dance school and choir, and it’s where an Estonian-language newspaper is published. So it was the perfect place to hold the first Campanelli concert on their U.S. tour! There wasn’t room for a huge audience, but the seats were filled, and everyone enjoyed the performance.
This concert contains music by Susan T. Nelson and others, and includes the first-ever performance of Sue’s beautiful arrangement of Mu Süda Ärka Üles. We commissioned that piece to commemorate our fifth wedding anniversary and the Campanelli tour. You’ll see us during the performance of that piece, playing a part for 8-bell duet. You’ll also see some traditional Estonian dancing at the end of the concert, where audience members were invited to join in. The concert also featured a performance by guest artist Natalia Paruz – known as “The Saw Lady”. If you’ve never seen a virtuoso performance on the musical saw, you should enjoy this! Natalia performs regularly in the New York Subway, and has provided music for movies and TV internationally.
We hope you’ll enjoy the Campanelli Handbell Ensemble concert – Sue’s Blues Too! If you have any questions, please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.
We had a lot of fun taking part in our first Downtown Holland Street Performer Series since moving to Michigan last year. We performed on two evenings – one in June and one in August – in two different locations on 8th Street.
We enjoyed playing our handbell duets in Downtown Holland. We especially appreciated how many people stopped to chat with us about the bells and our music. Even though many people here in Holland have seen and heard handbell choirs before, there are many people who haven’t seen handbell music performed by just two people holding two bells in each hand. We always enjoy showing people how we play, and explaining some of the techniques we use in our music.
The Street Performer Series is a fun community event, and we’re happy to have been given the opportunity to take part. Our thanks go to the Gentex Corporation and Holland Christian Schools for sponsoring this event. Thanks also to the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs for their support through the Holland Area Arts Council. Special thanks to everyone who stopped to listen to our music and chat with us. We hope to perform on 8th Street again next summer!
