The Blue Ridge Ringers, a western North Carolina community handbells group, will present their spring concert at Holy Cross Episcopal Church, 150 Melrose Avenue, Tryon, N.C., on May 4 at 4 p.m.
Organized in September 1995, the 5-octave ensemble rings under the direction of Robert Currier. The ringers represent several counties in western N.C.– Henderson, Transylvania, Polk, and Buncombe – and Greenville County, S.C.
Wanangwa Dever, Margaret Leach, Susie Mahnke, Jane Stikeleather, and Belynda Veser, who are Tryon music directors and ringers, are members of BRR.  The remaining ringers are: Karen Anderson, Elaine Bagley, Rosemary Charmley, Marite Currier, Connie Engle, Karen Grady, Donnie Halter, Blaine Russell, Kathy Voltz, and Carol Vruwink.
The Blue Ridge Ringers’ spring concert will include original music composed for handbells performance, spirituals and folk tunes arranged for handbells, and classical music transcribed for handbells. The program will open big-top style with a rousing arrangement by Cathy A. Moklebust of Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite March, by Karl L. King.  Farandole, the well-known “March of the Kings” by Georges Bizet and adapted by Betty Garee, is a challenging and exciting classic. Laudation, written for handbells by Arnold B. Sherman, is an energetic piece of perpetual motion, exhibiting the percussive elements of handbells performance. Four familiar spirituals and folk tunes on the program are the soulful and historically significant Wade in the Water, arranged by Hart Morris; Sondra K. Tucker’s playful arrangement of By and By; the popular Shaker Tune Lord of the Dance, arranged by Kevin McChesney; and No Dark Valley, arranged by Michael J. Glasgow. These and other pieces will be heard at the concert at Holy Cross on May 4.
Holy Cross Episcopal Church is located at 150 Melrose Avenue, Tryon, NC. Admission to the Blue Ridge Ringers concert is free, and the public is invited to attend. Please call the church office for more information:  828-859-9741.

– article submitted
by Susie Mahnke