Crown City Ringers will present a Holiday Handbell concert “A Tapestry of Carols” for the Los Angeles and Pasadena communities on Tuesday, November 29th at 7:30 p.m. in the Sanctuary of Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 East Colorado St., Pasadena. The concert, under the direction of F. Thomas Simpson, includes the ringing of well-known carols and will feature six and one octaves of Handbells and five octaves of Chimes, plus two of the worlds largest Handbell – the G2, and Bb2 both in cast Aluminum! Suggested donation: Student and Seniors, $10, Adults $12, Families $20.
Brothers Robert and William Cor of Aldbourne, Wiltshire, England, developed the first tuned handbells between 1696 and 1724. Originally used by change ringers (who rang a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called “changes”) to rehearse outside their towers, the handbell sets had the same number of bells as did the towers (usually six to twelve handbells tuned to a diatonic scale).
Margaret Shurcliff brought the first handbells from England to the United States in 1902. She was presented a set of ten handbells in London by Arthur Hughes, the general manager of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, after completing two separate two-and-one-half-hour change ringing peals in one day.
The concert is free and open to the public with a suggested donation of Student and Seniors, $10, Adults $12, Families $20. For more information, please contact F. Thomas Simpson at [email protected] or call (626) 789-3390.
Crown City Ringers was founded in 2014 – the first community Handbell choir in Pasadena.
For more information, visit www.crowncityringers.com.
