For Shoreline Ringers, it’s still holiday season
Hand bell choir will perform free concert on Sunday at the Congregational Church of North Stonington
North Stonington — The holidays may have passed, but that doesn’t mean the joyful festivities have come to an end in town.
With flashes of bronze and beautiful ringing, the Shoreline Ringers community hand bell choir is bringing a free concert to town at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Congregational Church of North Stonington. The group, which comprises ringers from throughout the greater southeastern Connecticut area, will perform a variety of songs, including original compositions and holiday favorites.
“Our concerts run the gambit of jazz to classical ... and we do that because we don’t like to do just one style,” said Jane Nolan, founder and director of the group. “We like to program a concert that has something in it for everyone.”
The upcoming show is the choir’s last of this season, another successful one for a group that certainly has exploded since its inception just over a decade ago.
Nolan, who has a degree in music education, was introduced to hand bells during her time as the music director at a church back in 1990. A representative from one of the hand bell manufacturing companies came by and offered to let individuals test the bells during an ice cream social.
The reaction of people who gave the bells a try was “contagious,” Nolan said.
“I was just amazed at the reaction and thought there was no turning back now,” she said. At the
“When you are ringing, it is as important to stop the sound as it is to initiate the sound. People who haven’t heard us are almost taken aback.” JANE NOLAN, SHORELINE RINGERS FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
time, hand bells were prohibitively expensive. But one donor was so enthralled, they gave $2,800 as a memorial donation in order for the choir to get its first two octaves of bells. From there, things really took off and, over the next several years, Nolan created six choirs, including a high school one.
But 11 years ago she decided that she wanted to try something a bit different and with some encouragement from a friend, she decided to create the Shoreline Ringers, a nonprofit organization that would perform music from a variety of composers and vast number of styles, including jazz, folk tunes, show tunes and classical numbers.
For her group she sought out people who had played hand bells previously or whom she had taught at church before, as well as other hand bell directors, who due to directing may not have had the opportunity to play as much themselves.
She ended up with 11 ringers to start and, although the group started as an “intermediate level choir” with just three octaves of bells, it has since grown well beyond that. The group now has 15 ringers, five and a half octaves of hand bells and has played in some large venues including playing in the “Joy for the Kids Concert” with Scot Haney, which is an annual telethon to raise money for Channel 3 Kids Camp programing, as well as Carnegie Hall’s “Christmas Time in the City” concert.
The music the group produces is very emotive and the sound itself is something highly unique. There’s also a visual aspect to the show in seeing the ringers work the bells, some of which are rather large. That aspect especially is something that seems to capture the attention of kids, Nolan said.
Although the group has grown, Nolan said it still deals with some challenges, especially regarding misconceptions about the music. Early on there was this idea that hand bells were a bit of a novelty, and there was and still is a misconception that the music is just going to be noise, said Nolan, adding that people tend to think of something like a bell tower.
But the ringers use a great amount of precision to create something totally different.
“When you are ringing, it is as important to stop the sound as it is to initiate the sound,” Nolan said. “People who haven’t heard us are almost taken aback.”