Opening Concert, Phoenix, AZ

Shoreline Ringers was selected to perform the opening concert at the Handbell Musicians of America National Seminar in Phoenix, AZ on July 14, 2021, and they rocked it!!

After a year of ups and downs with a disrupted rehearsal schedule due to COVID19, we all became fully vaccinated and realized our dream of performing before a national audience. Two members drove a rented van to Arizona with all the equipment and 15 other ringers flew out to perform two concerts in the Scottsdale area. Several members attended the entire 4 day seminar, others took the opportunity to vacation, and two other members drove the van back to Connecticut–a round-trip of over 5,000 miles.

We were most grateful to the generous people at our fund raising concert at Dunn’s Corners Presbyterian Community on June 27^th who financed our way through each state with the rented van both out and back. They also enjoyed the exact concert we performed for national, including the premier of “Mack the Knife”, a piece we commissioned from Sandra Eithun.

It was a treat to meet the people who arranged the music we played at national and hear how pleased they were with our presentation of their music. Attendees were delighted with the performance, and those of us who attended the seminar were the recipients of their compliments throughout the remainder of the week.

Thank you to all of you who supported us in this venture.

What does a pandemic practice look like? Shoreline Ringers gathered together yesterday, August 30^th for the first time in over 5 months, and it was full of good natured ribbing, smiles, annual meeting, games, prizes, birthday cake to celebrate all the birthdays we missed in the last 5 months and, of course, ringing. Our supply list has changed dramatically. We had, a remote thermometer, hand sanitizers, wipes, masks and, of course, clean gloves. In order to ring with social distancing, we needed 78’ of tables, foam and coverings, binders and music for each ringer, wipes for each ringer and, very importantly, individual small bags of M&Ms!

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            Practicing for the sake of practicing is not much fun if you have no goal in sight. As you can see under the list of events, we do have some holiday concerts scheduled. Who knows what the near future holds, but if we are not able to perform live in the venues listed, there is always Plan B. Stay tuned!!