A note of gratitude from Larry Sue, to participants at the 2025 Bay View Week of Handbells
Last night 107 handbell musicians at the 2025 Bay View Week of Handbells performed my arrangement of Seiichi Kyoda’s Winter Dance. Maestro Fred Gramann led us in an amazing program, and it was a tremendous honor that he included this piece in the repertoire.
My gratitude goes to all of you who made this performance more than just a technical reality. There was an inescapable growing intensity throughout the music that you made. During our penultimate rehearsal, I made a video of part of Winter Dance. It was everything I could have imagined. The Thursday night concert performance was even better than that!
I put lots of dots and squiggles on the pages, and I hope they were true to Kyoda-san’s heart. You turned those dots and squiggles into a unified sound that drew our audience into the dance we were trying to imagine. I could envision the people from that small village in far northern Japan, their bonfire, and their celebration in its warmth. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart, to each of you for being part of this musical endeavor. I thank you for granting me the privilege of joining you in it. Thank you for giving our audience an experience that they can remember. Thank you for dancing (in 5/4, no less). Most of all, thank you for having fun! You all created magnificence, and I’m indebted to you all for the gift you’ve given me.
The 2025 Bay View Week of Handbells Concert is fast approaching! We’re looking forward to this year’s concert, where more than a hundred advanced handbell musicians will once again be performing some beautiful, challenging and exciting music under the baton of director Fred Gramann.
We’ve been attending the Week of Handbells together since 2010, and participating in this event is always a highlight of our year. It’s an opportunity to work with a large group of musicians to prepare a concert to share, in a place that means so much to us. The music is always varied, challenging and exciting, and designed to appeal to a variety of musical tastes. Whether you love energetic original compositions, beautiful sacred works, classical pieces or familiar traditional melodies, there will always be something in the Week of Handbells concert that will appeal to you. It’s unlikely that you will ever get to see a concert that features such a huge number of handbells and handchimes!
This year’s concert will be on Thursday, August 14th, 2025, at 7:30pm, at the John M. Hall Auditorium at Bay View. Admission is free, and there will be an offering to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund. There’s no need to book tickets in advance, but we recommend arriving in plenty of time to get good seats, because it’s a popular concert!
The Bay View Week of Handbells Concert 2024 is approaching! We’re looking forward to this year’s concert, where more than a hundred advanced handbell musicians will be performing some beautiful, challenging and exciting music under the baton of director Fred Gramann.
We’ve been attending the Week of Handbells together since 2010, and participating in this event is always a highlight of our year. It’s an opportunity to work with a large group of musicians to prepare a concert to share, in a place we love. The music is always varied, challenging and exciting, and designed to appeal to a variety of musical tastes. Whether you love energetic original compositions, beautiful sacred works, classical pieces or familiar traditional melodies, there will always be something in the Week of Handbells concert that will appeal to you. It’s unlikely that you will ever get to see a concert that features such a huge number of handbells and handchimes!
This year’s concert will be on Thursday, August 15th, 2024, at 7:30pm, at the John M. Hall Auditorium at Bay View. Admission is free, and there will be an offering to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund. There’s no need to book tickets in advance, but you should plan to arrive in plenty of time to get good seats, because it’s a popular concert!
The Bay View Week of Handbells Concert 2023 is coming soon! We’re looking forward to this year’s concert, where more than a hundred advanced handbell musicians will be performing some beautiful, challenging and exciting music under the baton of director Fred Gramann.
We’ve been attending the Week of Handbells together since 2010, and we’re particularly excited about this year’s concert because we’ll be performing two of Larry’s arrangements there! There will be a performance of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy, an interesting arrangement for bass handbells, and a chance to hear the world’s first-ever performance of Smiles; a version arranged specially for this event.
The The Bay View Week of Handbells Concert 2023 will be on Thursday, August 17th, 2023, at 7:30pm, at the John M. Hall Auditorium, 1715 Encampment Avenue, Petoskey, Michigan. Admission is free, and there will be an offering to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund. There’s no need to book tickets in advance, but you should plan to arrive in plenty of time to get good seats, because it’s a popular concert!
The 2023 Bay View Week of Handbells starts on Monday, August 14th! Larry recently wrote an article about the event, and an abridged version was published in the Bay View Association’s newsletter, the Town Crier.
There was a lot of information in Larry’s article, but not enough space to publish the entire thing in the Town Crier. Click on the photo of the Town Crier below to read the article in full, and enjoy finding out more about the concert on Thursday, August 17th, this year’s music repertoire, and some interesting inside information about the composers and arrangers!
See you at the concert!
Remember to mark your calendar so that you don’t miss this year’s Week of Handbells concert! As mentioned in Larry’s Town Crier article, it will take place in the John M. Hall Auditorium on Thursday, August 17th. The concert starts at 7:30pm. It’s a popular event, so be sure to arrive early to get a seat in your favorite spot!
The two of us have been participating in the Week of Handbells since 2010. As always, we’ll be posting photos from this year’s event on our Facebook page, and you’re welcome to contact us if you have any questions about the concert, or the event in general.
It’s hard to believe that the 2022 Bay View Week of Handbells was the 11th year we’ve attended this evening together! Of course, that would have happened sooner, if the pandemic hadn’t happened. The 2020 and 2021 Week of Handbells events were cancelled because of Covid-19, so it was a particularly good feeling to get back to it this year.
Our history with the Bay View Week of Handbells
We attended this annual event for the first time in August 2010, when we were still in our long-distance relationship. Carla flew to Chicago from England, and Larry flew in from California. We met in person for the very first time at Chicago O’Hare, and took the short flight to Traverse City together. Until then, we’d only ever communicated online, via Facebook messages, so it was exciting for us to be able to see each other in “real life” and spend time together.
After the 2010 Week of Handbells, we flew back to England and California, and spent a very long year apart. Finally, we were able to meet again at the 2011 Week of Handbells, where we celebrated our engagement with cupcakes at the Monday evening reception. Then we were separated again, returned to England and California, and went through all the challenges of the K-1 fiancée visa process. When the U.S. visa was approved, we were able to make plans to close the distance permanently. Planning the trip was complicated, but we made it all coincide with the 2012 Week of Handbells, and after the event was over, we flew to California to make our wedding plans. Apart from the two years when the event was cancelled, we’ve attended together every year since.
The 2022 Bay View Week of Handbells
This year’s Week of Handbells was a bit different for us, for an important reason; we now have our own Bay View cottage! We bought this Victorian cottage in October 2019, when we became members of the Bay View Association. It was built around 1887, and is a quirky little place, with uneven floors and some interesting features!
We appreciated being able to be “at home” between rehearsals, and to relax in our own place at the end of the day. In previous years, we’ve stayed in hotels, and also rented another of the Victorian cottages on campus. Our cottage is at the bottom of the hill, so we got plenty of exercise walking to and from rehearsals in the auditorium! We also had a steady stream of visitors, and enjoyed giving cottage tours to our handbell friends.
The 2022 event
Once again, Larry had the opportunity to play the aluminum bass bells, in the Deep Pit. Carla played AB5, as coordinator of the Position 7 team. Rehearsals went smoothly this year, and everyone was thankful to be back after the long break. We also heard that Bay View Association members were happy to see the return of the bell ringers, and eagerly awaited the Thursday evening concert.
The repertoire for the 2022 Week of Handbells was as follows:
Festive Praises(Fred Gramann) Tales of the Great Water (Sandra Eithun) Finale (Widor, arr. Fred Gramann) The Entertainer (Joplin, transcribed by Paul Kingbury) – available from Choraegus Intrepid (Jason Krug) Change Ring Prelude on ‘Fred Gramann’ (Jantz Black) Aurora (Matthew Compton) Aria (Donald Allured) São Paulo (Elizabeth Peters) The Sound of Silence (Paul Simon, arr. Matthew Compton) Bulwarkana (Alex Guebert) Puttin’ on the Ritz (Berlin, arr. Hart Morris) The Lord Bless You and Keep You (Peter Lutkin)
There were five winners of the Donald E. Allured Composition Award at this year’s concert. Was this a record? Sandra Eithun’s Tales of the Great Water was performed for the first time at the 2022 Week of Handbells, and we were all happy that she came to the concert to hear it!
Catherine McMichael, Sandra Eithun, Larry Sue, Alex Guebert and Matthew Compton
As usual, the week was a very busy one. Rehearsals are long and intense, and there isn’t a lot of spare time, although we always appreciate the Bay View sunsets, the opportunity to gather with friends on the Wednesday “evening off”, and the Bay View Memorial Garden, where the flowers never disappoint.
What’s next?
Now that we’ve put away our 2022 Week of Handbells music, we’re moving on to more duet performances, writing and playing new music, and preparing for the holiday season. We’ll still be spending as much time as we can at Bay View – driving back and forth between Holland and Petoskey – until the time comes to close up the cottage for the winter months. Before too long, it will be time to sign up for the 2023 event – and we’re already looking forward to it!
We’re looking forward to the Bay View Week of Handbells 2022. More than 100 handbell musicians will be performing some beautiful and challenging music under the baton of director Fred Gramann.
The 2020 and 2021 events had to be cancelled because of the pandemic. This year’s event will be a happy reunion for so many of the handbell musicians! For the last two years, smaller handbell events have taken place on the Bay View campus, including duet performances. This year, we’re all thankful to be able to offer the traditional concert in the John M. Hall Auditorium again.
Here’s a photo of the small gathering at Bay View in 2021:
Here’s an example of the type of music you’ll hear at the concert in the auditorium. This is Larry’s original composition A Minor Crash, performed by the musicians at the 2019 Week of Handbells:
The concert for the Bay View Week of Handbells 2022 will be held on Thursday, August 18th, at 7:30pm. The venue will be the John M. Hall Auditorium, 1715 Encampment Avenue, Petoskey, Michigan.
Admission is free, and an offering will be taken to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund. There’s no need to book tickets in advance, but you should plan to arrive in plenty of time. It’s always a popular concert!
Bay View Week of Handbells venue – The John M Hall Auditorium
Free
John M. Hall Auditorium
1725 Encampment Ave Petoskey,
MI
MI 49770United States+ Google Map
We’re looking forward to the 42nd Bay View Week of Handbells, where more than a hundred advanced handbell musicians will be rehearsing and performing some beautiful, challenging and exciting music under the baton of director Fred Gramann.
This year’s event will be the tenth Week of Handbells we’ve attended together, and it’s particularly exciting for us because one of Larry’s original compositions – A Minor Crash – will be performed there!
The concert will be held on Thursday, August 15th, 2019, at 7:30pm at the John M. Hall Auditorium, 1715 Encampment Avenue, Petoskey, Michigan. An offering will be taken to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund. There’s no need to book tickets in advance, but you should plan to arrive in plenty of time to get good seats, because it’s a popular concert!
We’re settling back into normal life after our trip to Petoskey for the 2018 Bay View Week of Handbells. We’ve unpacked our cases, and done the laundry. The only task that remains is to file away the music.
Our history with the Week of Handbells
The Bay View Week of Handbells has become an annual tradition for us. We attended for the first time in August 2010, when we were still in our long-distance relationship. Carla flew to Chicago from England, Larry flew in from California, and we met in person for the very first time before taking the short flight to Traverse City together. Our first Week of Handbells was an emotional and fun event. We met so many new friends there! Most importantly, we had the opportunity to find out how it felt to spend time together in the same place. It was a luxury we’d never had until then, having only previously communicated in an endless string of Facebook messages!
One of the first photos taken of us together! On our way to Mackinac Island, August 2010
When our first trip to Bay View was over, we were apart again for a whole year. We met again at the 2011 Week of Handbells, and celebrated our engagement at the Monday evening reception.
The following year was a busy one for us, as we dealt with the challenges of the U.S. fiancée visa process. Finally, we were able to close the distance in August 2012. We timed everything to coincide with that year’s Week of Handbells. Larry flew to England, then we flew back together from London to Chicago. Next, we traveled to Traverse City for the week of rehearsals and the Thursday evening concert. After the event was over, we were able to take a flight to California and begin our life together.
Since then, we’ve been fortunate to be able to continue to attend the Week of Handbells every year. Our journey there became even easier after we moved from California to Holland, Michigan in the summer of 2016. These days, instead of having to book flights, we can simply get in the car and drive for a few hours, and we’re there!
What’s special about the Bay View Week of Handbells?
Firstly (and because this ties in with the mission statement of the event – see footnote), the standard of ringing is very high. The whole idea is that musicians will prepare the music thoroughly in the months before the event. It means taking time to learn the notes, work out strategies and solutions for tricky passages, and practise dynamics. When the event arrives, we can use the time to work on expression and the finer points of performing to a high professional standard. That relies on every ringer taking personal responsibility before the event. It’s such a wonderful feeling to attend an event knowing that you can rely on your neighbors to know the music thoroughly before the first rehearsal even begins.
Treble sectional rehearsal at this year’s Bay View Week of Handbells
The Bay View family
For us, one of the real highlights of the Week of Handbells is that it’s about so much more than just the music. The music is hugely important, of course, but so is the incredible feeling of friendship and fellowship that comes from returning to a place you love, and sharing that space with so many familiar people who have started to feel like family to us. The changes to the sign-up process for this year’s event meant that there were more first-time participants than usual. We admit to feeling heavy-hearted that some of our friends weren’t able to attend this year. There are some people who, for us, seem to belong at Bay View, and we felt their absence during the week. Having said that, we were also new to the event not so many years ago, and it’s important to welcome new participants and to hope that they, too, will soon feel part of the Bay View family. One of the great new developments this year was the introduction of a tuition scholarship for a young adult ringer.
New at Bay View – position captains
Another change this year was the introduction of “Position Captains” – a group of Bay View alumni responsible for going through the music and suggesting solutions and strategies for difficult passages, communicating with ringers, and responding to questions, in an effort to make this year’s practice go more smoothly for everyone. Carla had the opportunity to coordinate the Position 7 team this year. Despite the initial stress of having to start working on the music eight months before the event, it seemed to be a real advantage to correspond with a team of ringers and coordinate bell-sharing and ideas for those “possibly-impossible” measures in the weeks and months before we all arrived in Petoskey. The responsibility for practice still lies with each ringer as an individual, of course. However, this year it felt good to be part of a supportive team, working together to reach a shared goal.
Position 7! Plus a few extras, because Carla is a bell-hog, of course.
Skilled conducting makes a difference
Another thing that makes the Week of Handbells so special is the opportunity to perform under the baton of a really inspiring director. The event was established in 1978 by Don Allured, who passed the baton to Carl Wiltse in 2002. Fred Gramann took over as director in 2018, and did not disappoint. With his attention to detail and skilled conducting, it’s not surprising that he is in demand as a handbell director for events all over the world.
With Fred Gramann at the 2016 Week of Handbells
Exciting and challenging repertoire
The repertoire for the Bay View Week of Handbells is always challenging and rewarding. Favorites from this year’s concert program included Catherine McMichael’s Celtic Queen, Fred Gramann’s Prelude on Herzliebster Jesu and Michael Joy’s Proclamation (so much fun for the AB5 ringers!) Larry once again had the honor of being part of the Deep Pit team for this year’s event. He played the aluminum bells that are so exciting to watch during the Thursday evening concert.
The Deep Pit – bass bells at Bay View!
The concert on Thursday evening was an exciting event, where we all reaped the rewards of all the hard work we’d put in during the rehearsals, and in the weeks and months leading up to the event. With just the right mixture of “celebration” (including Doug Benton’s composition Alluredia, the Donald E. Allured Composition Award piece) and “dance” (including Charles Peery’s audience-pleasing arrangement of Love Will Keep Us Together) the audience and musicians really enjoyed the evening.
Together outside the John M Hall Auditorium – before the concert
Bay View is such a beautiful location
The Week of Handbells takes place in a beautiful part of Michigan. Bay View is a National Historic Landmark community, founded in 1875 and owned by the United Methodist Church. There are more than thirty public buildings on the campus, two inns and more than 400 cottages. This year, for the first time, we stayed in one of the cottages, and it was so convenient to be able to walk to and from rehearsals each day. Our cottage was just a short walk from the lake. On our first evening there, we went to the beach to watch the sunset together. What could be more beautiful than this?
Of course, anyone who knows us well… will also know that we take every possible opportunity to look for Petoskey stones while we’re at Bay View. The Petoskey stone is the official Michigan State Stone. It’s a fossilised coral – Hexagonaria percarinata – that lived in the warm Michigan waters around 350 million years ago. We found some on the beach while we were watching the sunset, and a few more after the Farewell Breakfast on Friday morning.
Cladopora (left) and Petoskey stones. Carla waded into the lake to get these!
We hope to be back next year!
We’re always sorry to have to leave Bay View when the Week of Handbells is over. Now that we live in Michigan, though, the goodbyes are less painful. When home is just a few hours’ drive away, a temporary farewell is much less traumatic. We hope to be back at next year’s event!
Note: The Bay View Week of Handbells Mission Statement (as stated on the Week of Handbells website) is: “The Bay View Week of Handbells exists to give advanced ringers an opportunity to prepare a concert to be performed at a high professional level.”
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!
