by Jill Boday

The Handbell Choir has been busy this winter! We have been performing each month during church services, including a few pieces with the Senior Choir! Margaret, Jan, Sally, and Jill just returned from a Winter Workshop held at UMass, Amherst, sponsored by the Handbell Musicians of America, Area 1.

We rehearsed new music with the “Beyond Basics” handbell ensemble which included beginner to intermediate ringers from around New England. Margaret said, “It was fun and challenging!

The music was beautiful!” We got to work with two different conductors and presented the two pieces at a concert on Saturday. Jan said, “All the people and conductors were so tolerant of the
beginners. It was a great bonding experience with the four of us from our church.”

We also took a couple of classes on handbell techniques and musicianship! Sally said, “Our two fabulous conductors supported and encouraged us constantly, and there was a big difference between our first and final performances. It felt pretty good!!!”

We will be sharing some of our newly learned concepts with the rest of the handbell choir and implementing some new ideas into our services. We have a lot of music coming this spring, so stay tuned! And we are always accepting new members on a rolling basis. If you are interested, talk to a ringer and check out a rehearsal: Thursday evenings at 6:30.

If you would like to check out some video clips of the afternoon on Vimeo – here are the links which you can copy and paste into the browser of your choice!

https://vimeo.com/907224299?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/907224610?share=copy