Handbell Festival

The Adult Handbell Ringers attended the 16th annual Blue Ridge Festival in Hendersonville last weekend. The event has morphed into an Area event and so was somewhat expanded (237 ringers this year) and included classes this time around. Lee Afdahl was a very personable clinician, and had plenty of fans, despite his tendency to keep up to tempo on the pieces! Many of the ringers were working hard to keep up with the pace! The facilities at Bonclarken were very nice if not without a couple of issues and the weather was great for walking between classes and rehearsals. Here is a link to some photos, and the gadget in the right column is a slide show of all the photos. Thanks to Emory Underwood for attending with his darling wife, Angie, and for taking these shots and letting us share them. A couple of close-in shots reveal just how much concentration is required when one is flying through bell music at warp speed. The group from Brasstown, NC had some very cool, extra-large chimes; look for them in the show.


In the photo here (taken during the closing concert), our group is the second row from the bottom, which made us second in line right in front of the clinician; daunting to say the least. We actually had only 5 of our regular ringers, but we were augmented with three ringers from Marion, NC and a 4th from Charlotte.

Handbell Festival

The adult ringers recently participated in the Blue Ridge Area Handbell Festival. The event was held at First UMC in Hendersonville, and the clinician was Hart Morris from Asbury UMC in Tulsa, OK. The ringers had a blast, and did a nice job at the event. We had already rung two of the pieces for worship at home, so we felt really good about our grasp of the music. Hart Morris was his usual ebullient self, and worked effectively with the ringers. Here is a clip of the rehearsal of one of the pieces. In the photos you can see Lucy D. and Charlotte S. putting up our banner. On the bottom is a group shot. I tried to catch Lucy and her cushy slippers; this shot of her and Sylvia B. is the closest I could get! Here is a small gallery of photos from the event. Also present for the event and in the group photo were Carla S., Mary V. A., Anita B. and Charles M. Missing the fun were Angie U., Margaret N., and our regular-sub Danny S.