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.
We’re looking forward to the 41st Bay View Week of Handbells, where 104 advanced handbell musicians will be playing some beautiful, challenging and exciting music under the baton of newly-appointed director Fred Gramann, and preparing for a public concert on Thursday August 16th.
If you’re in the area, and you’d like to attend the free concert, there’s no need to book tickets in advance. The concert will be held on Thursday, August 16th, 2018 at 8:00pm in the John M. Hall Auditorium, 1715 Encampment Ave., Petoskey, Michigan. An offering will be taken to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund. You should plan to arrive in plenty of time to get good seats, because it’s a popular concert!
The John M Hall Auditorium at Bay View
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!
We’re excited to be able to share a video of the world premiere of Larry’s original composition Coronation and Triumphant Exultation. The video is from the 2017 Bay View Week of Handbells, here in Michigan.
The Week of Handbells is an annual event; always one of the highlights of our year. We’ve been attending together since 2010. The Thursday evening concert is always an exciting experience. The musicians work hard for months beforehand, and it’s a thrilling concert to be part of. This video is part of the full concert recording by Pierpont Productions.
Coronation and Triumphant Exultation (Crùnadh agus Iolach) is published by AGEHR Publishing (AG58002). It’s for 5-8 octaves of handbells, and optional 5 octaves of handchimes.
This piece is the 2017 Donald E. Allured Original Composition Award piece. Larry dedicated the piece to Maestro Carl Wiltse, who directed the Bay View Week of Handbells for fifteen years. Here’s a photo of us with Carl. Yes, he’s a lot taller than we are!
If you have any questions about this piece, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help. We hope you’ll enjoy playing this piece!
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!
After a successful application and audition process, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve been invited to perform our handbell duets as part of the 2017 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. We were lucky enough to catch just the tail end of one event last June, when we came here on a house-hunting trip – and we saw some impressive performances by musicians, jugglers, and even some aerial acrobats! It’s a fun community event, and a great way to spend a summer evening with friends and family.
The 2017 Street Performer Series starts on Thursday, June 15. The event runs for twelve consecutive Thursdays until the end of August, from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
We’ll be performing on the following dates:
Thanks 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. We’re looking forward to being part of the Street Performers Series for the first time. Contact us if you have any questions, and check our Facebook page for any last-minute changes in the schedule!
Linstead Market is our latest 8-bell piece. We first played this at Los Altos Lutheran Church, a couple of weeks before we left California in the summer of 2016. We didn’t manage to get a recording at that time, but brought the piece out again for our recent concert in Warner Robins, Georgia. Linstead Market is a Jamaican folk song. It’s also used as the tune to the hymn Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ. Here’s a recent rehearsal video, recorded in our home here in Holland, Michigan.
If you’d like to play this arrangement, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
Choraegus music comes to you as a digital file to download. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, so you won’t need to wait for anything to arrive in the mail! Your purchase of this 8-bell piece will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group.
If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to make the purchase process stress-free! Please also read our licensing agreement.
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to look at some of the Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us is our newest 8-bell title. The piece received its first “performance” at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Lapeer, Michigan. We played duets during the two morning services, in celebration of Bell Choir Sunday. We were thankful for the warm welcome we received, and enjoyed the opportunity to listen to the Sine Nomine Handbell Choir too!
Here’s a video of us rehearsing Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us in our home in Holland, Michigan.
If you’d like to play this new arrangement, the music is available from Choraegus.
Please note that when you buy Choraegus handbell music, it comes to you in digital (PDF) format. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group.
If you haven’t bought music from us before, we highly recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide with pictures, to take you through the process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you seek, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
We’ve been rehearsing Christmas and holiday handbell duets for a couple of months now. Still, it’s hard to believe how quickly the holiday season has arrived. We probably say that every year… but for handbell musicians, it’s the truth!
In the last few weeks, we’ve been having fun playing festive handbell music at the Salvation Army Red Kettle here in Holland, at D&W Fresh Market. We had an exciting time being interviewed and filmed by Tracy Hinson from Fox 17, and we’ve been enjoying sharing our music with shoppers. We still have a few more sessions planned. You can see us between 10:00am and midday on the following dates:
In the next few weeks, we’re looking forward to providing holiday entertainment at events and parties in Grandville and Holland, driving to Ypsilanti for a Christmas party at a Senior Living Community, and performing in concert with the Zeeland Community Band (more information coming soon!)
Our other project for this December has been to make new video recordings of some of our Advent and Christmas carols. We’re calling it A Carol A Day, and you can find our new videos on our YouTube channel or on our Facebook page, or by searching on Facebook for the hashtag #ACarolADay.
We still have a limited amount of availability for this holiday season. If you’re looking for last minute holiday music for your event, it’s worth contacting us to see if we have a space in our calendar!
