Join Bells of the Sound this holiday season as we weave together the musical voices of friends from around the globe.

​Saturday December 9th, 7:00pm

Tibbetts United Methodist Church

3940 41st Ave SW, Seattle, WA

Sunday December 10th, 4:00pm

Woodland Park Presbyterian Church

225 North 70th Street, Seattle, WA

Friday December 15th, 7:00pm - Listen LIVE!

Listen or stream on KING-FM's (98.1)

Northwest Focus Live

Classical KING

Listener-supported classical music from the Pacific Northwest

king.org

Sunday December 17th, 4:00pm*

St. Andrew's Lutheran Church

2650 148th Ave SE, Bellevue WA

-- Livestream is available online --

Bells of the Sound - the Puget Sound's Premier Handbell Ensemble

www.bellsofthesound.org

*Admission is free at St. Andrew's

Tickets at the door:

$15/adults and $10/youth & seniors

Children 8 and under are free

We warmly greet you and invite you to share your holiday with us. Whether you share our warm, cozy fire, our children’s favorite traditions, or sing a beloved carol, we are here to open our hearts and home to you. 

As we prepare for the upcoming holidays, a few of our song selections will remind you that We Need a Little Christmas and confirm that It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. And as we Welcome Christmas, we know you’ll Believe that Santa is Coming to Town, and more than likely you’ll find him Up on the Housetop.

If you are dreaming of a White Christmas and making a list to check twice, remember to set a reminder to attend one of our Christmas concerts. With that, we are sure you will Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

Friday, December 1 at 7:00 pm

First Lutheran Church of Tacoma

524 S I St, Tacoma WA 98405

Sunday, December 3 at 3:00 pm

Mountain View Lutheran Church

122nd Ave E, Edgewood WA 98372

Sunday, December 10 at 3:00 pm

First United Methodist Church

1224 Legion Way SE, Olympia WA 98501

All concerts are free admission; donations appreciated

I started following a group named Handbell People on Facebook. If you are a Facebook user, I encourage you to check out this group. Let me confess up front that I am a very challenged user of Facebook. Every time I find something that I want to show my husband later, I can never find it again. But this morning I am successful.

On November 22, Brian Seeman posted an article titled A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Tune Handbells from artofhandbellringing.com. I'm sure most of you are furrowing your eyebrows and thinking "handbells can't be tuned". Same here. I started reading the article and it was very professionally and technically written providing a list of tools needed and step-by-step instructions for raising or lowering the pitch. I kept waiting to encounter the punch line. This had to be a spoof.

Brian prefaced the article with "Don't try this at home?!?! (I'm not convinced this website was written by a human...)

The many comments strongly suggested that this was a work of AI - artificial intelligence.

OK - amusing and harmless to those who can recognize this is just WRONG!

But then I got to wondering about someone completely new to handbells and wouldn't immediately think "you can't tune a handbell".

So what I want to say to the novice and the experienced handbell community, please turn to and trust the organizations and entities that have a proven track-record in the handbell community for input or advice. Handbell Musicians of America and it's 12 Regional Areas, such as our Area 10. The factories. I have Malmarks and I'm not bashful about calling them directly for technical advice. I'm sure Schulmerich is just as helpful.

Be aware, in this growing age of artificial intelligence, that what looks like good information may not be.

Happy Holidays to Everyone. Let there be peace on earth.

Joann Wallenburn, editor

OUR ANNUAL RING-A-THON will take place Dec. 4, 2023, from 4-10 pm EST, hosted by Michael Glasgow and Michèle Sharik. It will feature an afternoon and evening of performances, interviews, prizes, and giving opportunities live on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to our channel so that you receive announcements whenever new videos are added.

(Note from the editor: I have to insert here that both Michael and Michèle have very lively personalities and are just a ton of fun. You'll enjoy this broadcast.)

Our Emcees

Michèle Sharik and Michael Glasgow

Our Featured Performers and Guests

Greig Ashurst and Linda Onorevole • Handbell Playground

Bethan Neely and Hyosang Park • Quadrants Quartet

Handbell Soloist Sue Garton

Karen Carlisle • Handbells in Hawaii

Janet Carter and Linda Ashley • Intergenerational Handbell Camp

CJ Caminiti • The RingNYC

Griff Gall • The Back Bay Ringers

Applications are now open for Zenith 2024! If you'd like to be a part of the ensemble next year, please fill out this application by January 15, 2024! If you have any questions, you can email us at zenithhbinfo@gmail.com (notice the double "h", it's Zenith HB Info). We're so excited to see where we can go in our second year, and we hope you'll consider applying to be a part of it!

https://forms.gle/xZsDa58XNvXk7uQk6

If you are on Facebook, search for Zenith Handbell.

Early bird deadline is December 15th!

Come and join many other handbell musicians ringing six great pieces under the direction of Michael Joy. The pieces are level 2-3 incorporating various music styles, techniques, and seasons. The weekend begins with set-up Friday, February 10 in the late afternoon with the opening rehearsal at 6:30 pm. It continues Saturday beginning at 9:00 am and concludes with a concert for the community at 6:30 pm.

Cost is $55 per person postmarked on or before December 15, 2023 and $65 after December 15. This includes all conference activities plus snacks on Saturday. A $10 discount is offered for 2 or more from the same immediate family. The first family member pays full price; each additional person from the family is $10 less.

Information *** Registration *** Repertoire

This event is sponsored by Handbell Musicians of America.

Scholarships. We have scholarships for Area 10 musicians! More than two!! Our alum feels so strongly that we should have access for musicians regardless of finances that they give to create opportunities. Because there is such a great opportunity for musical and technical growth, we want everyone to be able to experience this event at least once. Be sure to apply.

Registration is open! https://coppersclassic.com

Questions? Contact our event coordinator at : eventcoordinatorcoppersclassic@gmail.com.

This event is sponsored by Handbell Musicians of America.

2024 is the 70^th Anniversary of the Guild. Let’s celebrate the guild and what it has done for our chosen instrument, the Handbell, over the years. The repertoire spans the last forty years from when techniques for our instrument were being developed and employed by adventurous advocates for the art of Handbell Ringing in their composing and arranging for bells. We’ll start with some of the early pioneers in the development of our Musical Art Form—Betty Garee and Don Allured; moving on to composers who continued to move our art form forward: Arnold Sherman and Cynthia Dobrinski in the middle years; with final selections from some of the newest contributors to the repertoire and the development of our art form: Brenda Austin, Mitchell Eithun and Matthew Compton. For a bit of history on Betty and Donald:

Betty Garee began directing youth and adult handbell choirs in 1972 at the New Hackensack Reformed Church in Wappingers Falls, NY where she developed a multi-choir program including her Klokken Ringers which concertized widely in the United States and Canada and for whom she wrote original compositions and arrangements for handbells. In the handbell world Betty became a renowned composer/arranger of music for handbell choirs.

Donald E. Allured has been called the "Father of Handbell Ringing in America", His many contributions include developing ringing techniques that brought out the artistry of a handbell choir and composing/arranging musically interesting pieces for handbells. He started working with handbell choirs in 1963 and in 1976 he was working full time in the handbell world leading workshops and festivals establishing a standard of excellence for handbell choirs.  He authored the methods and resource book Mastering Musicianship in Handbells and founded The Bay View Week of Handbells in 1978 to teach handbell techniques and musicality to ringers and directors from around the country. Don was a faculty member of Westminster Choir College, from 1979-1988, where he developed a full curriculum in handbell Training and Leadership, founding the Westminster Concert Bell Choir.

Ellie Hodder will be conducting the Bronze Conference Choir—participation in BCC is by application. For this group to be successful a minimum of 11 Advanced/Intermediate Advanced ringers (very comfortable ringing Level 4 music) are required. The two pieces selected for this group are: Laudation by Arnold Sherman (Vintage) and an arrangement of the Waltz from Swan Lake by Hyosang Park (Vouge). This group will rehearse Friday afternoon May 3, 4-6pm; Saturday morning May 4, 8-9am and during the class sessions of the Coppers Plus group (you can ring with your home choir). Participants are required to purchase their music ahead of time and learn their part prior to arrival in Ashland.

Updated Schedule *** Updated Repertoire

Registration opens January 1, 2024. Registration Form

Contact Diane Barnes at dkbarnes@jeffnet.org if you have any questions.

This event is sponsored by Handbell Musicians of America.