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.
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!
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!
With composer Susan T. Nelson and Natalia "Saw Lady" Paruz in NYC – July 2017
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!
With Linda Strouf after the 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’s so much music to choose from!
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!
The Bass Ringer’s Notebook
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!
The Bass Ringer’s Notebook – 2nd Edition!
Any questions?
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!
More information about the concert
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.
First Congregational Church – the venue for the handbell festival
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.
Handbell workshops with bass and treble bells
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.
Larry enjoyed the opportunity to play bass bells again!
Thanks to all involved in making this festival happen!
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!
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.
Larry and Carla – Handbell Duets in Downtown Holland
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.
Four-in-hand handbell duets in Holland, Michigan
Thank you to all the event supporters!
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!
This week we’re settling back into “normal life”, after a wonderful time spent with the Campanelli Handbell Ensemble. Campanelli visited the USA for the first time as a group, and we joined them for their tour. It was our first experience of visiting New York City and Niagara Falls, Canada. We tried some Estonian food, enjoyed concerts, and had the opportunity to perform with the group. We played a piece commissioned in celebration of the tour and our fifth wedding anniversary!
The story behind the project (short version!)
The story behind Campanelli Handbell Ensemble’s US tour began as long ago as 2010, when composer Susan T. Nelson received a Facebook message from Inna Lai, director of a handbell choir in Estonia. Inna said that the Estonian group had performed and recorded one of Sue’s compositions. She offered to send Sue a CD. From that first message, a strong friendship grew – and Sue sent Inna more of her music for Campanelli to play! In 2013, much to the composer’s astonishment, Campanelli played an entire concert of her music – entitled Sue’s Blues. They invited Sue to travel to Estonia to attend the performance, in the oldest concert hall in Tallinn.
Since that 2013 concert, Inna and Susan dreamed of being able to bring the Sue’s Blues concert to the USA. Bringing a group of musicians to another country, organising travel arrangements, accommodation, concert venues and instruments – well, it’s a huge undertaking! It took a group of people who were 100% committed to the project. They formed a committee, and launched a fundraising campaign. They found performance venues, and financial support started to come in. Then they invited professional soloists to take part in the concerts, and various offers of help arrived. Piece-by-piece, this amazing project came to fruition, and history was made!
How did we get involved?
People have been asking us how we became involved in the project. Our connection with the group started when Carla travelled to Estonia from the UK in 2011, for a handbell festival. She met Campanelli and their director Inna Lai, and they became Facebook friends. We’ve both been fans of Susan’s compositions for a long time now. When we read about the fundraising campaign last year, we were fortunate to be in a position to offer our support. This led to Sue offering to write a handbell piece for us. This turned out to be a beautiful arrangement of the Estonian folk song Mu Süda Ärka Üles, (Awake, My Heart). After an exchange of Facebook messages with Sue, we decided it would be a fun adventure for us to take part in all four of the concerts. So we started to make plans for a road trip!
Fun on the tour!
Our road trip began with a two-day drive from our home in Holland, Michigan… all the way to Jersey City. It felt like an extension of the journey we took in the summer of 2016, from California to Michigan! We arrived in Jersey City in the evening of July 20th, and took our first-ever trip to New York City.
A rose… placed on the memorial to commemorate the birthday of one of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack
The following day, we returned to New York City for the first of the Campanelli concerts. The day was not entirely without drama. First, we found out the cost of the taxi fare from our hotel in Jersey City to Manhattan. Then we found ourselves locked out of Estonian House when we arrived there! Fortunately the composer and event organiser Sue was locked out too. At least we all had people to talk to while we waited for someone to let us in!
Estonian House
Estonian House, the concert venue, is NYC’s community and cultural center for Estonian people. It was fascinating to see inside the building, with its ornately-carved staircases and sparkling chandeliers. We met up with the members of Campanelli, and the featured soloist for the evening’s concert – Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz. Natalia is a resident of the City and a virtuoso musical saw player. After a brief rehearsal for the evening’s performance, we grabbed the opportunity to play through some of our 8-bell music with Natalia and her musical saw – and it was such a fun experience!
With composer Susan T. Nelson and Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz
Our next stop on the Campanelli US tour was in Hamilton, New Jersey, for the second concert, at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. This was the longest of the concerts, featuring a variety of talented soloists playing flute, trumpet, trombone, marimba and tambura. There was also a soprano soloist (yay Debora!) who was brave enough to sing in Estonian. Inna explained to the audience that the Estonian language has more vowel sounds than the ones we’re familiar with!
Campanelli, joined by members of Our Lady of Sorrows Bell Choir and composer Susan’s handbell choir for the final piece in the concert
More sightseeing in NYC
The following day, we had an unexpected opportunity to go back to New York City for more sightseeing. This time two friends accompanied us, and did all the driving. The City felt far less overwhelming when we had a couple of experienced tour guides with us! We went back to the 9/11 Memorial, and also visited the museum; a very moving experience for all of us. We finished our day in Chinatown – with Mongolian hot pot!
Chinatown NYC at night (yes, that’s Larry in the white t shirt!)
The next concert was at St Paul Lutheran, in Beachwood, NJ. This concert was another huge success. The St Paul Ringers joined the group for the final piece, “A Trumpet Voluntary”.
Campanelli at St Paul Lutheran Church, Beachwood, NJ
The Malmark tour is always fascinating, with an opportunity to learn about each stage of the process. We and the group had been looking forward to touring the Schulmerich factory that afternoon too. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up in communications with the bus company. We had to cancel the tour, but hope to get there someday, though!
The final concert on the tour
The final concert took place in the Visitors’ Center at the historic Washington Crossing in Pennsylvania. The concert featured video footage of Estonia’s “Singing Revolution”. This film showed the role music played in the country’s fight to win back their independence from the Soviet Union. It was an evening for celebration; a mixture of emotions for all of us, as we knew the tour was coming to an end.
With Susan T. Nelson and Inna Lai after the final concert of the tour
With the concerts successfully completed, the only task remaining was to drive to Canada, for an exciting trip to Niagara Falls! The two of us had splurged on a hotel room with a view of the Falls; definitely a good decision.
An impressive morning view of the Horseshoe Falls, from our hotel window!
We met up with Campanelli for dinner at the Skylon Tower. This place has a wonderful view of the Falls from 775 feet up! During our brief stay in Canada we also enjoyed a boat trip. It was a great way to cool off, and to take photos at close range. After a fun morning of sightseeing and shopping, we drove back home to Michigan.
Thank you to everyone involved with this project!
The Campanelli US tour was a wonderful experience for all of us. The ideas and planning started three years ago, and the organisers should be proud of their achievement in managing to get everything to come together so perfectly. Campanelli’s musical skill and artistry wowed the audiences at their concerts, combining the music of bells with other solo instruments in a way that held people’s attention and kept everyone interested. We learned more about Estonian culture and history, and the members of Campanelli enjoyed the excitement and the challenge of visiting new places, meeting new people, and practising their English language skills with those of us who seriously need to start learning at least some basic words in Estonian!
Above all, new friendships were made, and old friendships were strengthened. We feel privileged to have had the opportunity to be part of this event – and our thanks go to everyone involved in making the tour so memorable for us all.
