PORT TOWNSEND — The Townsend Bay Ringers, a handbell choir, will perform at 7 tonight.
The performance of “Bells and Whistles” at Trinity United Methodist Church, 609 Taylor St., is the choir’s third appearance in the Candlelight Concert series.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is a suggested $10 donation, with children admitted free.
Proceeds benefit Port Townsend nonprofit organizations and the church’s music and historic Victorian restoration program.
Refreshments will be served following the performance.
Organ, handbells
The concert will include several selections written especially for organ and handbells, said Dave Purnell, event coordinator.
The pipe organ might be described as a big “box of whistles” that produces sound by vibrating air passing through an organ pipe, Purnell said.
The handbell sound has unique characteristics because of the variety of possible playing techniques, he said.
“The audience can expect rich musical variety, from lush harmonies to percussive sounds created by shakes and mallets, as well as martellato tapping of the bells into the foam-padded tables,” he said.
The opening piece, “Antiphonal Fanfare,” “includes playful musical banter between the organ and handbells playing in two different keys at the same time,” Purnell said.
Also on the program is Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and a lively African-American spiritual to precede an arrangement of “You Raise Me Up,” made popular by Josh Groban.
A Spanish Catalonian carol will be played entirely with mallets.
Three selections will be embellished by tubular hand chimes.
The choir is directed by Judy Schussler — a graduate of Willamette University in Salem, Ore. — who also directs the Trinity United Methodist Church choir.
Schussler has taught elementary and junior high vocal music and directed two handbell choirs at First Presbyterian Church in Yakima during her 30 years as director of music.
Guest organist
Joining the group for this performance will be special guest organist Woody Bernas, who gave a solo organ concert at the church last October for a standing-room-only audience.
Bernas received his training in West Virginia, Ohio and Minnesota.
He is a former organist at First Presbyterian Church of Port Townsend and is currently the principal organist at Summit Avenue Presbyterian Church in Bremerton.
He also is the program director at Port Townsend’s Gray Wolf Ranch, an intermediate care facility for chemically dependent young men.
The Townsend Bay Ringers Ensemble was formed in 2012 as a community handbell choir to provide accompaniment for a Wild Rose Chorale Christmas Concert.
It has since expanded to an 11-member ensemble of Port Townsend musicians whose backgrounds range from boatbuilding, telecommunications, teaching and acting to maintaining a custom textile design studio.
Six members sing in the Port Townsend Community Chorus and four are professional church musicians.
The group provides outreach into the community through concerts, performances at local churches and retirement homes.
For more information, call 360-774-1644.
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
