Origin Stories

Maude Agnus, Tyler, Texas: I got asked to join the bell choir because I had a van. They were going to a festival and they needed something to haul the bells in.

Sue Aubrecht, Merrillville, Indiana: I joined a Baptist church with great bell program after I’d married and was close to 30. Fell in love with handbells, then when the director left to go to teach at a Christian university, the pastor asked him who should take over the school and church program. He suggested me and I’ve been a bell junkie ever since.

Jennifer Cauhorn, Cold Spring, Kentucky: I was asked to sub in a co-worker’s church choir because I had a music degree. I became a permanent member after that first rehearsal.

Melissa Hoover Erikson: I was an empty nester and desired to make music. My church did not have anything. A community adult handbell group was beginning and I joined. Ten years later I’m still ringing and am loving making music.

Nikki Evans, Tyler, Texas: I transferred to a new church in January 2017, when I didn’t even know what a handbell was — it happened to be Arnold Sherman’s church, so I guess it was only a matter of time before I ended up ringing, haha. In August, I ended up trying it and loving it. I joined a group there that September.

Fast forward a few more months: my group doesn’t ring over the summer, so after a couple of weeks off, I started to miss ringing. I asked for advice on what to do about that — how to not miss it so much, and continue learning. I got the answer, “Try solo ringing.” I thought, “No way, I’ve only been ringing for a few months; I can’t do that.” So I asked someone else, and got, “Try solo ringing.” I still didn’t like that answer, so I asked another friend. “Try solo ringing.” At this point I was out of options, so I finally gave it a try, and ended up loving that even more.

Neesa Hart, Richmond, Virginia: After four years of failed piano lessons, my poor mother, like Hannah of the Old Testament, took me to church and hurled me at the feet of the minister of music and begged him to do something. He placed me at GA4 because I was the tall kid.

Ellie Hodder, Portland, Oregon: I started ringing handbells because we were remodeling our living/dining rooms and there was no place to sit down. Since normal relaxing was out of the question, I decided I could fill an evening by joining a church choir. About three or four months into that stint, I was recruited into the bell choir because “you read music” and assigned to B6/C7. Sometime that year damping was suggested but not for several months. What a novel concept.

Later that fall, I was picking up a printing job in an office building and was lured by the sound of handbells in the lobby. It turned out to be Nancy Hascall’s quartet. I was mesmerized and totally enthralled that it was actually possible to make music with those things. I served briefly as an interim music director and immediately contracted Nancy to come teach a workshop. It didn’t take long for me to be hooked.

I moved on to a different church that happened to have a first class choral program. Turns out they also had handbells. I was pulled into subbing from time to time, but the lack of a consistent director was a negative and I often found I had other obligations on those rehearsal nights. The next fall, the director of music formed another singing choir and no longer had time to direct the bells. He asked me if I would take over the adult and high school choirs. I said “no” since I’d only been ringing for three years. He kept talking and persuading. He won.

I am now at yet another church as director of music ministries. My bell choir is hard working and growing in skill and musicality. At the moment, I only have one young ringer — an eager 10 year old — who just had her first lesson with Barbara Brocker and has moved on to a second string of bells on her tree. She and I have played duets and I’ve learned to duck because she really does take to heart getting the bell hand out of the way so she can grasp the new bell without crossing her hands. And, I just started a new beginning adult community bell choir. I expected four to six ringers. We have 12. Clearly there’s still quite a bit of interest in handbells in the world.

Candace Hill, Pickens, South Carolina: I’d been a member of a Florida church for a number of years. My husband and I sang in the choir. I was vaguely aware there were handbells but didn’t know much about them. I certainly was not inclined to ring them. But early fall 2010, a lady in choir suggested I join the handbell choir. My reply: “Not interested.” At the next rehearsal, a couple more ladies encouraged me. It soon became clear they would not stop “pestering” me until I asked our music director about bells. At first she told me there were no openings, but when she learned I could read bass clef, suddenly I was a member. By the way, I had never rung before. Thankfully the music director started the rehearsal with “warm-ups” aka proper ringing techniques.

Two years later our beloved music director accepted a position elsewhere. During that summer, my husband and I had the opportunity to stop by an Augsburg Fortress music clinic on our way to visit family. Mostly I was interested in the handbell section — and our beloved music director was also there. I had checked out the handbell set-up and knew where “my” position was. As other people came in, I was able to sit by my director. As I listened to the introduction, I kept looking around for “ringers,” but there were none. Then the speaker ASKED for ringers to come forward. My director grabbed my hand and said “Let’s go!” Thankfully, I was able to get to the one (and only) position I knew how to ring.

What fun! I was sharing a folder and fortunately the other ringer turned all the pages. Unfortunately at the end of one piece I missed a bell change but was able to correct it. The director said “well, it wasn’t written that way but your Picardy sure worked.” I had to Google that when I got home.

Far more important: I was able to visit with my past director. I asked how I could keep learning and avoid falling into bad habits. She replied that I should go to festivals. I asked where to find festivals. The answer: HMA.

My first festival was the 5th Annual Florida State-Wide Festival. I could write a book on all I learned there. After the festival, I was asked to be a Florida district leader. As best as I could figure, I was the only non-professional musician, non-director, non-composer/arranger in the group. I decided my niche was to represent ringers: especially those in small groups (2 or 3 Octaves) that were frequently without a director (as my church bell group was at that time) with limited resources (aka no budget).

After that, I attended many festivals in Florida and eventually in South Carolina. At one of the festivals, I was on a balcony overlooking the ringing floor and a person asked what I wanted from the festival. I replied I need a free director for my church choir. It turned out that person was working on HMA credentials and needed a place to direct. I’ve also hosted workshops, done a lot of subbing, and am now in a bronze choir in Greenville, South Carolina.

And now I’ll admit that I’m grateful to the ladies in choir who pestered me to join bells. (Names have been omitted to protect the guilty and my friends.)

Ruth Howald, Birmingham, Alabama: I Joined the only protestant church in the western hemisphere that did not need and could not use a mediocre alto in the choir. The only way to make music in worship was to join the bell choir. I started out as the “permanent substitute,” and loved the challenge. Then started dating this tall guy (not so silver then as he is now), who would pick me up and take me to bell rehearsal, sit in the hall and afterward, go to church with me. He didn’t get much choice about joining the bell choir, nor did he get much choice, later, when we had moved to a different church where mediocre alto (alti?) and just-learning bassi were more than welcome.

Paul Kingsbury, Rochester, Minnesota: I was bitten by a radioactive handbell director. True story.

Lisa Kliment: My church started a bell choir. I love music and was intrigued. A few months later the college I worked at started one, under the direction of Sandra Eithun, and I’m still learning. I love bells!

Nancy Lutz, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Shortly after we joined our Methodist church here in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s, the handbell director asked me if I’d be interested in subbing for the youth handbell rehearsals. I accepted the challenge, never having had a bell in my hand. Who knew extent of the journey that was about to begin? Eventually an adult group was started and as fate would have it, I “inherited” the directorship and got involved in AGEHR, eventually being appointed to serve on the national board. Ten years ago, I was the founding artistic director of Three Rivers Ringers. The handbell Director who extended that invitation to me is the mother-in-law of sitting HMA Board member, Linda Minnotte.

Susan Perkins, Tacoma, Washington: I begged Ginny Fleming to teach me to read music so I could ring bells. “Sorry,” she said, “I don’t do that.” I was persistent and won. I went on to play glockenspiel, taught myself flute, and marched in marching band in high school. Early on after Ginny got me into her group we had a Don Allured Ringathon that was memorable, and the year I graduated from high school we went to festival in Hawaii with David Davidson directing. Over the years I was in several handbell groups, including Bells of the Sound.

Rhonda Inzer Piccolo, Alexandria, Virginia: I saw the youth handbell choir play at church. I was mesmerized, totally and completely. When they were done, I turned to my mom and said “I want to do that.” The next week, I went to my first bell choir rehearsal. I was the youngest member, and incredibly shy, but in that group I grew to be part of a musical community, with the help of a young bell choir director who took me under her wing. I’m now 57, and still love to ring. I think it was love at first sight.

Brianne Lucinda Pituley, Piñon Hills, California: Self-defense.

Alice Real, Springfield, Virginia: My mom was music director and brought the new church handbells home one day to our living room where I rang for the first time. I eagerly joined the youth bell choir when it started the next year. Years later, I started a chime choir at my elementary school and a student’s parent recruited me to direct bells at her church.

Megan Reishus, Colorado Springs, Colorado: I got into handbells much like many other handbell musicians: at church, because it was what fourth graders did while the adults were at vocal choir. I was okay, I suppose, but nothing special and just on the “show up to rehearsal once a week and don’t think about it at all in between rehearsals/Sunday service” plan. Where I think my story diverges is how I got into solo and ensemble ringing. For that, I credit Jill Mahr, the handbell director at St. Olaf College. She believes in her students, often well beyond how much they believe in themselves, and her encouragement changes lives – I know it changed mine. My junior year, the St. Olaf Handbell Choir toured to my home church and the home churches of two other members of the group, so we asked if we could do a trio as a bit of fun variety within the concert. We played “Rondo a la Turque” and had a blast with it, eventually requesting to do another trio the following year. Around the same time, Jill asked me if I knew how to play the bell tree. I mistakenly assumed that she meant the percussion instrument that you just use to make a glissando, to which I said “yes” (while thinking “are there people who *can’t* do that?”). Next time I saw her, she handed me Barbara Brocker’s solo arrangement of “‘Tis a Gift to be Simple,” saying that we would be playing it on tour and I would be playing the solo. It was at that point that I realized my error; but of course had to figure it out because I wasn’t going to let her or the group down. So that is how I ended up falling in love with bell tree and later solo ringing, and with ensemble ringing. That may well have been the most important and life-changing thing that happened to me in college, much more impactful in my day-to-day life than my degrees in economics and French.

Ruth Russell Seiwell, Lake Jackson, Texas: My friend was the director as well as the wife of the associate pastor. I started ringing in the fall and they were moved in February. I stepped into the director position until someone else took over or until the end of the year — that was a multitude of years ago. I educated myself by going to every event I could find and fell in love with the instrument. I’ve had the privilege of directing all ages of church choirs as well as ringing with Houston Bronze Ensemble for many years and serving as conductor of that group for 2 years. Handbells are one of my passions.

Kath Wissinger, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia: I played handbells in the early ’70s in my high school church group in Kettering, Ohio (I think they were Taylors, but no one at the church remembers what happened to them), got a degree in Geology and worked as a Ranger in the National Park Service. In 1987, my church acquired handbells, so I joined the brand new adult group right away and started a youth group the next year, which I led for 30 years. Since we had no budget for music, I wrote music for them — and my “kids” still remind me about all the repeats in my hand-written scores. My former piano teacher even showed some of my early music to her friend, Ellen Jane Lorenz. She was not exactly encouraging.

I joined the Guild, served on the Area 3 board for eight years (thanks to Ed Tompkins), and was automatically plugged in to planning and teaching at Area 3’s many events. At one event, I roomed with Linda Lamb, who was also on the board, and who urged me to submit my music for publication. My first two pieces ever submitted were accepted by the Guild (Thank you, Bill Griffin.), and I thought “Hey! This will be easy.” (Ha!) People started asking me to direct events and write music for them. During a conducting class at a Guild event, David Davidson encouraged me to pursue massed directing. So I took AGEHR’s Master Conducting Class with Bill Payn, which was a life-changer. A few years later, I took the Master Composing Class with Arnold Sherman. Since then, I’ve taught and directed at area, national, and international events.

When a classical school was starting up in our area, I contacted them and asked, “Have you thought about handbells?” I’ve taught handbells as a core music class to 4th-8th graders at Redeemer Classical School for 16 years now, and started writing pedagogical music for my students, guided by Mike Joy and Kimly Schlabach. I developed my own pedagogical curriculum over the years. I bought three octaves of bells after renting for a few years, then added another two octaves of both bells and chimes when my classes got larger.

MOSAIC Handbell Ensemble was born ten years ago when a ringer who wanted to ring harder music asked me to start a community group. Then I was hired to direct an adult church group, Gloria Dei. I continued writing music for all my groups and had 80+ pieces published at the time, when Barb Brocker encouraged me to start my own publishing company. I’d wanted more creative freedom and to get my curriculum Square One published. This was the push I needed to finish it up. So I partnered with Jeffers Handbell Supply to establish “ringTrue Handbell Music.” Hmm, what’s next?

​

Maude Agnus, Tyler, Texas: I got asked to join the bell choir because I had a van. They were going to a festival and they needed something to haul the bells in.

Sue Aubrecht, Merrillville, Indiana: I joined a Baptist church with great bell program after I’d married and was close to 30. Fell in love with handbells, then when the director left to go to teach at a Christian university, the pastor asked him who should take over the school and church program. He suggested me and I’ve been a bell junkie ever since.

Jennifer Cauhorn, Cold Spring, Kentucky: I was asked to sub in a co-worker’s church choir because I had a music degree. I became a permanent member after that first rehearsal.

Melissa Hoover Erikson: I was an empty nester and desired to make music. My church did not have anything. A community adult handbell group was beginning and I joined. Ten years later I’m still ringing and am loving making music.

Nikki Evans, Tyler, Texas: I transferred to a new church in January 2017, when I didn’t even know what a handbell was — it happened to be Arnold Sherman’s church, so I guess it was only a matter of time before I ended up ringing, haha. In August, I ended up trying it and loving it. I joined a group there that September.

Fast forward a few more months: my group doesn’t ring over the summer, so after a couple of weeks off, I started to miss ringing. I asked for advice on what to do about that — how to not miss it so much, and continue learning. I got the answer, “Try solo ringing.” I thought, “No way, I’ve only been ringing for a few months; I can’t do that.” So I asked someone else, and got, “Try solo ringing.” I still didn’t like that answer, so I asked another friend. “Try solo ringing.” At this point I was out of options, so I finally gave it a try, and ended up loving that even more.

Neesa Hart, Richmond, Virginia: After four years of failed piano lessons, my poor mother, like Hannah of the Old Testament, took me to church and hurled me at the feet of the minister of music and begged him to do something. He placed me at GA4 because I was the tall kid.

Ellie Hodder, Portland, Oregon: I started ringing handbells because we were remodeling our living/dining rooms and there was no place to sit down. Since normal relaxing was out of the question, I decided I could fill an evening by joining a church choir. About three or four months into that stint, I was recruited into the bell choir because “you read music” and assigned to B6/C7. Sometime that year damping was suggested but not for several months. What a novel concept.

Later that fall, I was picking up a printing job in an office building and was lured by the sound of handbells in the lobby. It turned out to be Nancy Hascall’s quartet. I was mesmerized and totally enthralled that it was actually possible to make music with those things. I served briefly as an interim music director and immediately contracted Nancy to come teach a workshop. It didn’t take long for me to be hooked.

I moved on to a different church that happened to have a first class choral program. Turns out they also had handbells. I was pulled into subbing from time to time, but the lack of a consistent director was a negative and I often found I had other obligations on those rehearsal nights. The next fall, the director of music formed another singing choir and no longer had time to direct the bells. He asked me if I would take over the adult and high school choirs. I said “no” since I’d only been ringing for three years. He kept talking and persuading. He won.

I am now at yet another church as director of music ministries. My bell choir is hard working and growing in skill and musicality. At the moment, I only have one young ringer — an eager 10 year old — who just had her first lesson with Barbara Brocker and has moved on to a second string of bells on her tree. She and I have played duets and I’ve learned to duck because she really does take to heart getting the bell hand out of the way so she can grasp the new bell without crossing her hands. And, I just started a new beginning adult community bell choir. I expected four to six ringers. We have 12. Clearly there’s still quite a bit of interest in handbells in the world.

Candace Hill, Pickens, South Carolina: I’d been a member of a Florida church for a number of years. My husband and I sang in the choir. I was vaguely aware there were handbells but didn’t know much about them. I certainly was not inclined to ring them. But early fall 2010, a lady in choir suggested I join the handbell choir. My reply: “Not interested.” At the next rehearsal, a couple more ladies encouraged me. It soon became clear they would not stop “pestering” me until I asked our music director about bells. At first she told me there were no openings, but when she learned I could read bass clef, suddenly I was a member. By the way, I had never rung before. Thankfully the music director started the rehearsal with “warm-ups” aka proper ringing techniques.

Two years later our beloved music director accepted a position elsewhere. During that summer, my husband and I had the opportunity to stop by an Augsburg Fortress music clinic on our way to visit family. Mostly I was interested in the handbell section — and our beloved music director was also there. I had checked out the handbell set-up and knew where “my” position was. As other people came in, I was able to sit by my director. As I listened to the introduction, I kept looking around for “ringers,” but there were none. Then the speaker ASKED for ringers to come forward. My director grabbed my hand and said “Let’s go!” Thankfully, I was able to get to the one (and only) position I knew how to ring.

What fun! I was sharing a folder and fortunately the other ringer turned all the pages. Unfortunately at the end of one piece I missed a bell change but was able to correct it. The director said “well, it wasn’t written that way but your Picardy sure worked.” I had to Google that when I got home.

Far more important: I was able to visit with my past director. I asked how I could keep learning and avoid falling into bad habits. She replied that I should go to festivals. I asked where to find festivals. The answer: HMA.

My first festival was the 5th Annual Florida State-Wide Festival. I could write a book on all I learned there. After the festival, I was asked to be a Florida district leader. As best as I could figure, I was the only non-professional musician, non-director, non-composer/arranger in the group. I decided my niche was to represent ringers: especially those in small groups (2 or 3 Octaves) that were frequently without a director (as my church bell group was at that time) with limited resources (aka no budget).

After that, I attended many festivals in Florida and eventually in South Carolina. At one of the festivals, I was on a balcony overlooking the ringing floor and a person asked what I wanted from the festival. I replied I need a free director for my church choir. It turned out that person was working on HMA credentials and needed a place to direct. I’ve also hosted workshops, done a lot of subbing, and am now in a bronze choir in Greenville, South Carolina.

And now I’ll admit that I’m grateful to the ladies in choir who pestered me to join bells. (Names have been omitted to protect the guilty and my friends.)

Ruth Howald, Birmingham, Alabama: I Joined the only protestant church in the western hemisphere that did not need and could not use a mediocre alto in the choir. The only way to make music in worship was to join the bell choir. I started out as the “permanent substitute,” and loved the challenge. Then started dating this tall guy (not so silver then as he is now), who would pick me up and take me to bell rehearsal, sit in the hall and afterward, go to church with me. He didn’t get much choice about joining the bell choir, nor did he get much choice, later, when we had moved to a different church where mediocre alto (alti?) and just-learning bassi were more than welcome.

Paul Kingsbury, Rochester, Minnesota: I was bitten by a radioactive handbell director. True story.

Lisa Kliment: My church started a bell choir. I love music and was intrigued. A few months later the college I worked at started one, under the direction of Sandra Eithun, and I’m still learning. I love bells!

Nancy Lutz, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Shortly after we joined our Methodist church here in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s, the handbell director asked me if I’d be interested in subbing for the youth handbell rehearsals. I accepted the challenge, never having had a bell in my hand. Who knew extent of the journey that was about to begin? Eventually an adult group was started and as fate would have it, I “inherited” the directorship and got involved in AGEHR, eventually being appointed to serve on the national board. Ten years ago, I was the founding artistic director of Three Rivers Ringers. The handbell Director who extended that invitation to me is the mother-in-law of sitting HMA Board member, Linda Minnotte.

Susan Perkins, Tacoma, Washington: I begged Ginny Fleming to teach me to read music so I could ring bells. “Sorry,” she said, “I don’t do that.” I was persistent and won. I went on to play glockenspiel, taught myself flute, and marched in marching band in high school. Early on after Ginny got me into her group we had a Don Allured Ringathon that was memorable, and the year I graduated from high school we went to festival in Hawaii with David Davidson directing. Over the years I was in several handbell groups, including Bells of the Sound.

Rhonda Inzer Piccolo, Alexandria, Virginia: I saw the youth handbell choir play at church. I was mesmerized, totally and completely. When they were done, I turned to my mom and said “I want to do that.” The next week, I went to my first bell choir rehearsal. I was the youngest member, and incredibly shy, but in that group I grew to be part of a musical community, with the help of a young bell choir director who took me under her wing. I’m now 57, and still love to ring. I think it was love at first sight.

Brianne Lucinda Pituley, Piñon Hills, California: Self-defense.

Alice Real, Springfield, Virginia: My mom was music director and brought the new church handbells home one day to our living room where I rang for the first time. I eagerly joined the youth bell choir when it started the next year. Years later, I started a chime choir at my elementary school and a student’s parent recruited me to direct bells at her church.

Megan Reishus, Colorado Springs, Colorado: I got into handbells much like many other handbell musicians: at church, because it was what fourth graders did while the adults were at vocal choir. I was okay, I suppose, but nothing special and just on the “show up to rehearsal once a week and don’t think about it at all in between rehearsals/Sunday service” plan. Where I think my story diverges is how I got into solo and ensemble ringing. For that, I credit Jill Mahr, the handbell director at St. Olaf College. She believes in her students, often well beyond how much they believe in themselves, and her encouragement changes lives – I know it changed mine. My junior year, the St. Olaf Handbell Choir toured to my home church and the home churches of two other members of the group, so we asked if we could do a trio as a bit of fun variety within the concert. We played “Rondo a la Turque” and had a blast with it, eventually requesting to do another trio the following year. Around the same time, Jill asked me if I knew how to play the bell tree. I mistakenly assumed that she meant the percussion instrument that you just use to make a glissando, to which I said “yes” (while thinking “are there people who *can’t* do that?”). Next time I saw her, she handed me Barbara Brocker’s solo arrangement of “‘Tis a Gift to be Simple,” saying that we would be playing it on tour and I would be playing the solo. It was at that point that I realized my error; but of course had to figure it out because I wasn’t going to let her or the group down. So that is how I ended up falling in love with bell tree and later solo ringing, and with ensemble ringing. That may well have been the most important and life-changing thing that happened to me in college, much more impactful in my day-to-day life than my degrees in economics and French.

Ruth Russell Seiwell, Lake Jackson, Texas: My friend was the director as well as the wife of the associate pastor. I started ringing in the fall and they were moved in February. I stepped into the director position until someone else took over or until the end of the year — that was a multitude of years ago. I educated myself by going to every event I could find and fell in love with the instrument. I’ve had the privilege of directing all ages of church choirs as well as ringing with Houston Bronze Ensemble for many years and serving as conductor of that group for 2 years. Handbells are one of my passions.

Kath Wissinger, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia: I played handbells in the early ’70s in my high school church group in Kettering, Ohio (I think they were Taylors, but no one at the church remembers what happened to them), got a degree in Geology and worked as a Ranger in the National Park Service. In 1987, my church acquired handbells, so I joined the brand new adult group right away and started a youth group the next year, which I led for 30 years. Since we had no budget for music, I wrote music for them — and my “kids” still remind me about all the repeats in my hand-written scores. My former piano teacher even showed some of my early music to her friend, Ellen Jane Lorenz. She was not exactly encouraging.

I joined the Guild, served on the Area 3 board for eight years (thanks to Ed Tompkins), and was automatically plugged in to planning and teaching at Area 3’s many events. At one event, I roomed with Linda Lamb, who was also on the board, and who urged me to submit my music for publication. My first two pieces ever submitted were accepted by the Guild (Thank you, Bill Griffin.), and I thought “Hey! This will be easy.” (Ha!) People started asking me to direct events and write music for them. During a conducting class at a Guild event, David Davidson encouraged me to pursue massed directing. So I took AGEHR’s Master Conducting Class with Bill Payn, which was a life-changer. A few years later, I took the Master Composing Class with Arnold Sherman. Since then, I’ve taught and directed at area, national, and international events.

When a classical school was starting up in our area, I contacted them and asked, “Have you thought about handbells?” I’ve taught handbells as a core music class to 4th-8th graders at Redeemer Classical School for 16 years now, and started writing pedagogical music for my students, guided by Mike Joy and Kimly Schlabach. I developed my own pedagogical curriculum over the years. I bought three octaves of bells after renting for a few years, then added another two octaves of both bells and chimes when my classes got larger.

MOSAIC Handbell Ensemble was born ten years ago when a ringer who wanted to ring harder music asked me to start a community group. Then I was hired to direct an adult church group, Gloria Dei. I continued writing music for all my groups and had 80+ pieces published at the time, when Barb Brocker encouraged me to start my own publishing company. I’d wanted more creative freedom and to get my curriculum Square One published. This was the push I needed to finish it up. So I partnered with Jeffers Handbell Supply to establish “ringTrue Handbell Music.” Hmm, what’s next?

​