Missouri River Ring
Super Early Bird Deadline: March 1
Click here for your registration form. You may email your completed registration form to Treasurer@area8.handbellmusicians.org.
Click here for the Young Ringers registration form. You may email your completed registration form to Treasurer@area8.handbellmusicians.org.
Updated February 22, 2012
Click here for the schedule overview.
Updated February 20, 2012
Click here for class descriptions.
Updated February 14, 2012
Click here for hotel information.
Click here for Unpublished Music Reading Session information.
Click here for Unpublished Music Reading Session Registration.
Click here for Faculty List without bios.
Added February 1, 2012
Click here for the list of classes.
Added January 19, 2012
Click here for the Pre-conference Director's Track information and application.
Added December 5, 2011
Click here for the Show Me Ensemble Track information and application.
Updated August 16, 2011
Click here for general festival information.
Click here for Festival Repertoire.
Click here for information regarding performing groups.
Click here for performing group application.
Missouri River Ring June 21-23
Payment option: you now have the ability to pay your registration deposits and fees with PayPal. A small convenience fee has been added to the cost if PayPal is used. Please remember to fill out your registration forms and mail with a copy of your PayPal receipt.
Please note your Handbell Musicians of America (AGEHR) membership number on your payment. Questions? Click here.
You may email your completed registration form to Treasurer@area8.handbellmusicians.org.
| DEPOSIT ONLY REGISTRATION and add-ons. Non-refundable deposit; balance due will be billed through PayPal. Click here for your registration form. |
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| DAILY REGISTRATION OPTION and add-ons. Click here for your registration form. |
Young Ringers Festival June 6/20-6/21
Please note your Handbell Musicians of America (AGEHR) membership number on your payment. Questions? Click
here.You may email your completed registration form to Treasurer@area8.handbellmusicians.org.
| DEPOSIT ONLY REGISTRATION and add-ons. Non-refundable deposit; balance due will be billed through PayPal. Click here for the Young Ringers registration form. |
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FULL REGISTRATION and add-ons. Non-refundable deposit included. Click here for the Young Ringers registration form. |
June 20-23, 2012 – St. Charles, Missouri
In 1994, the Area 8 conference was held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the second ever Young Ringers conference was held in the gym of Coe College. We had a wonderful event planned planned ─ great clinicians, lodging in the dorms, pool party, popcorn and ice cream party; just a load of fun for kids of all ages. But the one thing we didn’t count on was weather. You see, the gym was not air conditioned, and a heat wave was sweltering the area in 96-plus degree temperatures! What to do with almost 200 young ringers in a hot, no air-flow type of room? Naturally, Kipp Willnauer, Tom Brintnall and I came up with a plan (scary thought!) We challenged the ringers and chaperones to be cool.
We asked them to come up with song titles that talked about cool things… Let It Snow, Frosty the Snowman and Skater’s Waltz. We came up with nearly 90 song titles! The cool thing (pardon the pun) was that we all forgot the heat and focused on a great time with good music and friends. For any of you that have been to an area conference, there are wonderful memories…and as much as we enjoy the music and the concerts and the classes, the friends and memories are what keep us going back. I’m looking forward to a hot time in the city, with a ton of new experiences and opportunities to heat up your enthusiasm for handbells.
Whether this is your first opportunity to go to an event, or your tenth, you will not be disappointed! Take a gander at these smoking hot highlights from the upcoming 2012 conference:
Speaking of Young Ringers, we’ll be having a very cool opportunity for those ringers between 2nd and 8th grades beginning on Wednesday, June 20, at 1:00 p.m., to Thursday at noon. During that time these ringers will ring together under the direction of the very cool clinician, Nick Hanson, take some fun classes, and in the evening travel to Fun Town (www.swing-a-round.com) for dinner, go karts, bumper boats, miniature golf and much more. Then on Thursday, we’ll rehearse a bit more before playing the opening concert of the regular conference. This is a great and very affordable time to make music and friends!
Pre-Conference Director’s Track – your Area 8 Board is working together to present an informative and helpful track for directors: beginning, intermediate, experienced, or those of you who are thinking about wanting to direct. This will be four hours of instruction designed to help you become an even better director. It will begin on Wednesday evening at 7 and conclude Thursday morning as the regular conference begins. This will be extremely beneficial to our directors!
St. Charles Convention Center – let me say that this is one fine facility!! Everything is convenient. The mass ringing floor, classes and exhibitors are sooo close to each other you can almost leave your walking shoes at home! It’s three years old and will be great for our conference. And you’re very close to all kinds of restaurants and entertainment. Now, we will be entertaining you as part of the conference, but you might begin to plan now to spend a few extra days in the St. Louis area!
Information, Music and Registration – the 1st of July, you will be receiving more detailed information about the conference, the music list will be published, and yes, registration forms will be available!! Some of this will come to your home through the mail, but all of it will be on line at www.areaviii.org beginning July 1. Why don’t you be the first to sign up to make music and friends in St. Charles next summer?
Ed Rollins ~ Area 8 Past Chair
Featured Ringers at Missouri River Ring
Agape Ringers and Velocity with P.L. Grove
Meet P.L. Grove, clinician
For
over 35 years, Pamela “P.L.” Grove has been at the forefront of
handbell artistry in America. As a founding ringer with the
critically acclaimed Sonos Handbell Ensemble, her more notable
performances include those with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the
San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Kronos Quartet, Frederica von
Stade, twice on Garrison Keillor’s
A
Prairie Home Companion,
and a tour of Japan.
Meet David Weck, clinician
David is in
demand as clinician throughout the year and has been director of
numerous national and international handbell events including the
2004 International Handbell Symposium in Toronto, the 2008
International Symposium in Orlando, Florida, and the 2010
International Symposium in Osaka, Japan. In 2005, he served as Guest
Conductor for the Summer Workshop of The Handbell Ringers of Japan.
It was a special honor for David to serve as a guest co-conductor at
the 2009 Distinctly Bronze and currently, he is pleased to be
conducting the 2012 Distinctly Bronze events.
David has served on the national board of the AGEHR and was given the Midwest States’ Area 8 Outstanding Service Award. Most recently, he was awarded by the AGEHR as an Honorary Life Member in July of 2011. For 40 years, David has been involved in choral music through music education, church music and as assistant director of the Chicago Community Renewal Chorus.
He and his wife, Jane Holstein, reside in Wheaton, Illinois, were they enjoy spending their spare time with grandchildren, Becky and Jack.
Meet Nick Hanson, young ringers clinician
1. What are
your memories of being a young ringer in Area 8?
Being a young ringer in Area 8 was amazing.
I started ringing when I was nine, with a wonderfully
dedicated director, Ione Burham.
She was a committed director; always pushing us to do well,
and to enjoy the music being made.
We had four youth ensembles ranging from third grade through
high school, which was great for us third graders to see the older
kids playing more difficult music, going on trips, and playing at
festivals.
My best
memories growing up ringing in would have been tours to England and
Alaska, our myriad concerts at our home church and throughout the
local area, and learning the skills to play small ensemble music and
solos.
2. What
was your first conference - what inspired you from that?
My first conference was Ringing in the Rapids in
1994.
I had been ringing
for about five years, and was the youngest member of our church's
ensemble to attend this event.
Whereas the entire event was such a great trip, I would have
to say that two distinct things were inspirations.
First of all was the fact that Hart and Marty Morris were the
event clinicians.
I,
like practically every handbell ringer on the planet, had played
many of Hart's compositions.
Being there as a young ringer and learning under the baton of
someone "famous" was an awesome experience.
That definitely planted a seed within me.
The other amazing memory I have from that event
was a showcase concert (I think at the Paramount Theater?) of my
older brother performing "Parade of the Tin Soldiers" as a solo.
I believe he was the only high school student at that event
to perform at the showcase concert, and he was spectacular.
I distinctly remember that once his performance was done, the
entire theater gave him a standing ovation.
I knew from that point on I not only wanted to
learn how to ring solos and small ensembles, but I wanted to learn
to be a performer.
Perpetual Motion was a handbell quartet made up
of myself, my older brother, and two very close friends of ours who
were also brothers.
We would always request newly published quartet
music (I think we had every quartet from the Genesis Press and
National Music Publishers catalogs), and we would just devour the
music.
We all loved to
ring, and this was just an awesome way for us four junior high/high
school students to focus our musical talents and feed our passion.
We would play in church quite often, perform for various
church dinners and other functions, did shows during the holidays,
and performed at Area 8events.
I distinctly remember playing at the Nebraska conference in
1996, Ringing Up a Storm (I don't think anyone will forget that
conference!), though I cannot quite remember the song we played (it
might have been J.S. Bach's "Fughetta," arr. Charles Maggs).
Regardless, it was quite a fun trip.
As for our locations, my older brother lives in
Ohio with his wife and two children.
He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and is a professor at Otterbein
College in Westerville.
He still rings in a church choir, covering most of the bass clef, I
believe. The other pair,
the Lueck brothers, both still live in Area 8 and they both work for
software/tech companies:
the older lives in Chicago with his wife and works for Google, and
the younger lives in southeast Iowa with his wife and
working for Vangent.
I do not know if they still ring or not, though it would be a
lot of fun "to get the band back together"...
As for me, I live just outside of Washington, DC with my wife
(who is an awesome handbell ringer) and what should be two children
by the time this interview is published.
I teach kids handbells on a daily basis, and I wouldn't trade
that for any other job!
4. What
is it about leading a Young Ringers conference that really excites
you?
I love teaching youth.
From seeing the excitement when they ring a handbell for the
first time to watching their growth into handbell musicians, it is
truly a rewarding experience.
To do all this in a full conference setting is even more
rewarding just because of the sheer enjoyment of ringing with so
many others. Young
handbell ringers are eager to succeed in this rhythmic (almost
primal), unique instrument.
There is so much energy at a youth conference.
And when this energy combines with the passion and excitement
I have for this instrument, it becomes a fun and rewarding
experience for everyone.
We've all heard the phrase "the children are our
future." How true that
statement is to handbells!
Just as I experienced a wonderful conference when I was
young, I hope that I can influence these young men and women to
continue ringing, and perhaps even make it their career.
5. Are
you glad to be coming home to Area 8?
I'm ecstatic!
There are so many wonderful handbell memories and experiences
I've had at Area 8 conferences, and I'm eager to be a part of those
again.
I miss the Midwest lifestyle and culture (and the food! I've been craving a pork tenderloin sandwich and cheese balls for the longest time!), and am always happy when I visit. This trip will be immensely special as it will combine these great memories, this wonderful part of our country, and my passion for this instrument. I'm really looking forward to it!