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Volume 18 • Issue 2 • Spring 2025
Notes from the Chair
Happy Spring! With the weather warming up and the landscape coming to life, it’s the perfect time for change and new beginnings. This spring holds a new beginning for our Area 11 Leadership Team. Much like the wildflowers, we’ve had some changes amongst our board.
Nikki Evans is transitioning from Communications Chair to the role of Webmaster. She will curate our newsletters, monitor our virtual bulletin board, and make sure our website is up to date! Sara Oedekoven is transitioning from the role of Mountain Sub-Area Chair to Communications Chair. She will be in charge of all things Communications! This includes posters, social media, email blasts, advertisements, website updates, reflection forms, etc. Since Sara has transitioned to a different position, our team is very excited to welcome Andrew Smith as the new Mountain Sub-Area Chair. Andrew has a wealth of knowledge and has done a wonderful job serving our Area as the Utah Spring Ring Chair for the past few years. He is a skilled photographer, communicator, and was a tremendous help with our 2024 Festival in Salt Lake City, UT. Andrew will be working with members in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. If you live in one of those states, feel free to send him an email and introduce yourself! All of these positions, pictures, and emails are updated on the “Board of Directors” page under the “About Us” tab. If you don’t recognize a name, I recommend stopping by the page to get familiar with our wonderful leadership team! If you have an inquiry and you’re not sure who to contact, send me an email ([email protected]) and I will forward it to the right person!
Much like the flowers, these changes are going to help our area blossom and bloom! We appreciate your patience these past two months while our board was navigating these changes. It takes a village and we have the best team working hard to spread our love of handbells and handchimes to our 5 wonderful states!
The past two months have been very exciting! We had a very successful Areawide Read and Ring along with the Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado Spring Rings. Thank you to all of our ringers, event chairs, committees, and clinicians for participating! This is the highlight of many peoples’ years! It’s been such a joy to watch all of the pictures and videos posted online after each event. If you have a great experience, feel free to tag us on our social media pages so we can encourage others to participate in these great events! If you missed out on your state’s Spring Ring, we have one more Spring Ring coming up on May 16-17 with Cathy Moklebust in Casper, Wyoming. This two-day event will be one you won’t want to miss! If you want an extra ringing experience and a chance to learn from an incredible composer and conductor, I highly recommend attending!
If Casper is too far away, we still have registration open for our 2025 Ringers Camp in Granby, Colorado! This is going to be an event you won’t want to miss with two internationally acclaimed clinicians: Sandra Eithun and Mitchell Eithun. Sandra and Mitchell have worked hard the past few months curating the perfect repertoire to celebrate nature and capture the essence of camp! The registration and payment deadline is April 30, so register TODAY to reserve your spot!
Our next big event is Fall Tune Up in September of 2025. If you’d like to volunteer to be an instructor, site host, or help with equipment, please email: [email protected] or [email protected] and let them know you’re interested in helping out! We couldn’t run our Area events without your help!
Pretty soon we are going to be updating our website with dates for our 2025-2026 year. Make sure you check our website regularly for all the updates! Thank you for an incredible start to 2025 and I can’t wait to see what the rest of spring brings!
Love and Bells,
Anne Kelley
Upcoming Events
10 Reasons to Come to Camp
- Make new friends
- Have fun ringing
- Two top-notch clinicians
- Small group workshops
- Improving sight-reading skills
- Summer tubing hill
- Swimming & hiking
- S’mores by the campfire
- Mountain views
- Colorado sunshine
A Note from our Clinicians!!
Greetings ringers of all ages! We’ll be gathering in the beautiful Rocky Mountains to ring handbells this June. I can’t wait to be inspired by the beauty of the surroundings, the music and the people. Please join us for fun, fellowship and song. We’ll do some ringing, have a few workshops and get to know each other with some fun games and activities (you can relax too). I’ve recently completed a brand new setting of the folk song, “Wild Mountain Thyme” that will be part of the repertoire along with a few other pieces that depict nature. I’ll be highlighting some resources for smaller groups of ringers (8-12 bell settings) as well as a session on incorporating expression into your playing. I’m thrilled to have my son Mitchell as my teaching partner. So, please register, mark the calendar and pack your bags! What could be better than music in the mountains? I’ll see you there.
Sandy
Hello ringers! I’m looking forward to our time together this summer at Area 11 Handbell Camp! This will be my first visit to Colorado and I am so excited to see the Rocky Mountains as I do something I love: make music with handbells. One piece that I will be leading is “Song of the Flowers”, a beautiful arrangement of Taiwanese flower songs by Hong Kong composer Kevin Mazimas Ko. This piece will be a worthy challenge for experienced ringers! I encourage you to listen to recordings of all of the pieces we have selected to get a sense of the music we will be learning together. In addition to rehearsals we will test your handbell knowledge in a round of Handbell Jeopardy! You won’t want to miss it. My hope is that camp will be an opportunity both to rest and connect with fellow ringers.
Mitchell
Spring Ring- Registration Deadlines Approaching!
Dates: May 16-17
Location: Ramkota, Casper, WY
Clinician: Cathy Moklebust
Bulletin Board
ISO: Director for Community Handbell Director - Denver, CO
Smithtonians Handbell Ensemble is in search of a new Director beginning fall of 2024, for our group of 13+ dedicated ringers, playing five octaves. The ensemble, composed of auditioned ringers with multiple years of experience, was founded 40 years ago and has performed primarily in the south Denver Metro area to a wide range of audiences. We have concert seasons in early December and early May, with weekly rehearsals excluding the summer months. We play a variety of pieces from our extensive library, from the classics to contemporary to the eclectic. Education of the audience, in not only the techniques of ringing handbells, but also imparting the traditions and love of ringing, is a meaningful part of our mission. Contact Maribeth McKenna at [email protected].
ISO: Director for Church Ensemble in Johnstown, CO
The United Methodist Church of Johnstown, CO is seeking a handbell director starting this fall. Rehearsals are Wednesdays 6-7 PM and the group typically plays 2 pieces in worship the 3rd Sunday of each month as well as one service on Christmas Eve.
Please contact the church at 970-587-4444 or [email protected].
ISO: Director for Church Ensemble in Salt Lake City, UT
Our handbell choir of 12 people needs a new director! We rehearse on Monday nights 7-8:30 and play in church on the third Sunday morning of the month from September through May, We have 5 octaves of bells and a fun group. The church is at 17th and 17th. There is a stipend for this position. Interested? Please call Lisa Vitkus @ 216-965-5605 or email at [email protected].
ISO: Ringers at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Sandy, UT
Have you been looking for a bell choir? Well, we’re looking for you! We’re a church choir located in Sandy, Utah, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. We have all levels of experience some members have been part of the choir for over 15 years, others just 5. We usually ring L2+ -L3 pieces with a 12 ringer ensemble, but we’ve shrunk! Due to illnesses, moving out of the area, and retirements, we now have a 7-member choir. We have five octaves of bells, and three of chimes. Right now we’re preparing 2-octave material for Christmas but we yearn to get back to those full-bodied songs! Our 4 and 5 octaves of bells are feeling abandoned! Please help us let our bells know we love them and want to get them singing again! We practice at the church every Monday, from 6 – 7:15 pm. Ages 14 and up, with the ability to read music are welcome! Please call Kate McGuire at (925) 435-0096 and leave a message with your name and number. Or call Good Shepherd at (801) 255-8181.
Looking forward to ringing in 2025 with you!
Kate
Area 10 Composition Contest
Area 10 is hosting a 2025 Bell Tree Composition Contest for Bell Tree Plus Handbell Choir. There is an award of $1,500 and the deadline is 5/31/2025. Check out the Area 10 page for more information: https://area10.handbellmusicians.org/2025-bell-tree-composition-contest/
Utah Spring Ring
Stay Tuned for our next Areawide Events:
CHIME Loan Program
FOSTER HOMES NEEDED! Area 11 has several sets of chimes in need of foster homes for the upcoming year. Do you know of a church or school who would like to introduce chimes into their worship settings or curriculum? If so, please direct them to our website for information regarding the C.H.I.M.E. Loan Program: https://area11.handbellmusicians.org/education/handchime-grant-program/
From Sue McConnell-Faith Lutheran Church, Woodland Park, CO:
We are so grateful for the CHIME program from Handbells of America! When we received our chimes, we were so excited and everyone helped each other learn together. This not only made the group connect to each other but made friendships happen. When I asked for people to join, I announced it by playing two chimes that sounded like a doorbell and said, “That’s all I can play by myself so please join me to learn together!” In four months, we were able to learn Carol of the Bells, and we have three songs planned for Easter Sunday. It’s the easiest and fastest way to make church musicians! It has brought laughter, fun and music with the peaceful sound of the chime choir to our church!
Engage!!
Ahhhh, Spring! A time to engage in more activity, fresh ideas, new learning, and serendipitous connections. One way to achieve all of this is to join or increase your involvement with one group that provides opportunities to accomplish all of the above!
Have you, at one time or another, put handbell ringing aside for family, health, work, or other responsibilities or interests? I know I have – sometimes for years! Then comes a day when you hear handbell music on the radio, enjoy handbell music at church, watch handbell performances on TV at Christmastime, or . . . you’re invited to join or rejoin a handbell choir! Are you afraid that you have forgotten how to ring a bell?
Wait a minute! We never forget how to ride a bike! Why, after years of neglect, are we able to ride a bicycle as if we never stopped peddling? Boris Suchan explains in Scientific American that because skills such as playing an instrument or riding a bicycle are anchored in procedural memory those memories are resistant to both loss and trauma. As its name implies, this type of memory is responsible for performance.
Arizona Spring Ring recently hosted nearly 80 handbell musicians in three different ensembles ages 9 to nearly 90! Yes, you read that right. The Youth ensemble included the youngest ringer, students from Concordia University Irvine covered the Gen Z group, and adults made up the largest (and oldest) choir. All ability levels were well-represented and expertly conducted by clinicians Alex Guebert and Erik Der from Concordia.
It was a wonderful day. Arizona’s sun was shining. Paradise Valley provided a gorgeous setting. Rehearsals were productive and efficient. I marveled at the ease with which both clinicians moved between adult and youth groups sharing the teaching and conducting responsibilities. Paradise Valley United Methodist Church provided an excellent venue. Lunch was even delivered on time! And after weeks of planning, monitoring registrations, checking and double-checking equipment, collaboration, attention to every detail, I was able to engage – with our hosts, the lunch delivery guy, the youth, the college students, the adults, and the clinicians in meaningful, helpful, and rewarding ways.
Over the years, I have questioned my own interest in ringing handbells. Both LeAnna Willmore and Kyle Webber have taken the time to listen to my doubts and encouraged me to keep “riding my bike.” Through this year’s Arizona Spring Ring, I confirmed my real love in the handbell world is event planning and coordination, something I’ve done in one form or another most of my life. I love the handbell world and the people in it, but I don’t love playing the instrument. My satisfaction and fulfillment comes from creating, planning, and managing opportunities for my colleagues to CONNECT, LEARN, and ENGAGE through our artform.
Now’s the time for you to get back on your bike! ENGAGE in an organization that is the foremost voice for the art of handbell and handchime ringing – Handbell Musicians of America (HMA)!
To celebrate Spring, reconnect with members of your regular ensemble or a new one, learn something new, and find opportunities to engage with fellow handbell musicians. Make a renewed effort to learn from your colleagues and mentors. Explore the benefits of HMA membership and commit to joining our professional organization at https://handbellmusicians.org/get-involved/become-a-member/
HMA members receive reduced registration fees for most HMA events. Consider registering for one of these:
• Wyoming Spring Ring, May 24-25 (2 days), Casper WY – Clinician: Cathy Moklebust
• Area 11 Ringers Camp, all abilities & ages 10+, June 8-12, Granby CO
• Summer Youth Bell-ympics, ages 8-18 with experience, June 29-July 3, Coalville UT
• Pinnacle 2025, July 9-12, Wichita KS
• Distinctly Teen (in conjunction with Pinnacle 2025), ages 13-18, July 10-12, Wichita KS
See you there!
Lynne Storms
Chair Elect
Handbell Musicians of America Area 11
Joyfully Ring!
News from National
Pinnacle places its primary emphasis on the performance elements of handbell artistry. The event also focuses on the organization and maintenance of various types of ensembles. While Pinnacle may have had its beginnings as an event designed primarily for Community Ensembles, it is important to know that Pinnacle 2025 is for all people who perform with handbells – ringers, directors, church groups, professional ensembles, community groups, soloists, school groups, and more. Hear ten musician showcases by ensembles from the United States and abroad, attend nine classes over three days, visit handbell and musical businesses in Handbell Commons, attend a lunch banquet with award presentations, and spend time with fellow handbell musicians.
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