THE BELLS OF CHRISTMAS!
Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for 16 and under. The concert will feature many traditional Christmas songs and works by such composers as Bach, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky, as well as creative arrangements of holiday songs by contemporary composers. The Bells of Christmas! has something for everyone, including six octaves of handbells, ensembles, percussion, harp, chimes, and audience participation in caroling. You may especially enjoy the following:
Come, enjoy the sights and sounds of Wisconsin's only full six-octave handbell choir!
WHAT IS MACH? Madison Area Concert Handbells (MACH) is a six-octave, auditioned, community handbell choir in the Madison, Wisconsin, area. MACH is a nonprofit organization devoted to serving the community through high-quality performances and educational opportunities for skilled handbell ringers. The members of MACH bring a collective experience of approximately 200 years of handbell ringing to their performances. MACH has been able both to share experience as well as to benefit from interaction with other handbell choirs in the area by sharing substitutes, repertoire ideas, technique tips and equipment. Musical performances by a MACH ensemble or by the whole choir are available for conventions, holiday parties and weddings. Contact us for more information. AN AP-PEAL-ING OPPORTUNITY Are you ready for a new and exciting musical challenge? Would you like to join a group of talented ringers who play a wide variety of handbell music? MACH is auditioning! Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds. Expect to do some sight reading, demonstrate basic handbell ringing techniques, and display your rhythmic and bell changing skills. To set up an audition, contact us. An important note: MACH has a policy to uphold ringers' commitments to their current handbell choirs; they are encouraged not to leave their choirs to join MACH. PERFORMANCES GALORE! It's a busy December for the ringers of MACH! In addition to 2 complete performances of our holiday concert on December 11 & 12, our full choir or smaller ensembles will play private performances at Evansville Manor, Attic Angels Retirement Center, Oakwood Village, and the UW Hospital. We will also perform some of our concert repertoire at these public performances: Saturday, December 4, 1999, at 7:00 p.m., 1999, Civic Center prior to the Madison Symphony Orchestra performance; Saturday, December 18, 2:30 p.m., 1999, Elvehjem Museum; Saturday, December 18, 7:00-9:00 p.m., 1999, Jonathan Overby's Higher Ground radio show, WHA (970AM); and Sunday, December 19, 2:00 p.m., 1999, Olbrich Gardens. BIG BUCKS AND BUCKY BELLS MACH gives hearty thanks to Berbee Information Networks Corporation and The Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission for helping to fund some of our performances at health care facilities. We are sincerely grateful for this support! MACH's biggest fund-raising effort now involves a $6000 Challenge Grant from the Madison Community Foundation toward purchasing our own equipment. We need to match the $6000 with funds from other sources before May, 2000. The combined amount won't be quite enough to buy everything we need, but it will be a giant step in that direction. Any help you can give us will be most gratefully received. Donations are tax-deductible. In a departure from our usual type of fundraising MACH now also has "Bucky Bells" to sell. These are small red cowbells with the University of Wisconsin W on one side, and Bucky Badger on the other -- a "Badger spirit" item. At a recent "Get Acquainted with Non-Profit Organizations" day at Hilldale Mall in Madison, we sold Bucky Bells alongside our concert CDs (see below). MUSIC FOR YOUR EARS MACH is now "on disc." With expert production assistance, MACH has compiled two beautiful CDs. The first, Concert Highlights, contains Christmas music from MACH Holiday concerts. The second CD, Music of the Spheres, includes selections from MACH's Spring concerts. Each CD sells for $12 and would make a great gift for a friend or handbell enthusiast. You might even want to enhance your own collection! To purchase your CDs, contact us (see box on other side) or purchase them at one of MACH's concerts. They are also available at Ward-Brodt Music.
MACH MEMBERS HONE SKILLS MACH members are striving to learn more about the art of ringing. This summer, our Music Director attended the week-long AGEHR National Directors Convention in San Diego; three of our members went to the AGEHR Area V summer festival with Hart Morris in Greencastle (IN); two members participated in the 22nd annual Bayview (MI) Week of Handbells with Donald Allured; and one member attended Handbell Week at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee, and a workshop at Concordia University, and rang at the ALCM meeting in Richmond (VA). They are all sharing with us what they have learned!
HANDBELL-L If you have e-mail and are interested in handbells, you might want to check out Handbell-L. The "-L" stands for "list"... Handbell-L is an e-mail list of about 1400 handbell enthusiasts from all over the U.S. and abroad. It is a good forum for asking questions, learning about what other groups are doing, hearing from some of the luminaries of the handbell world, or enjoying lively discussions related to our instrument and our art. To experience Handbell-L, send a message to the list server (a machine,
not a person) listproc@ringem.org with the following line in the message
body (no subject): If you want to send or reply to a message, send to handbell-l@ringem.org with an appropriate subject and message related to handbells. If you want to look at past messages on Handbell-L (either before or after subscribing), go to this web page: http://www.ringem.org/maillist/Handbell-L/ Some recent topics on Handbell-L have included bass bell, battery, and 4-in-hand techniques; information on upcoming conferences and concerts and reviews of past ones; forearm strain and ear protection; music editing software ideas; tips for playing outside; repertoire suggestions; sources for supplies; and much more. At first, the camaraderie might cause you to feel a bit like you walked into the middle of an existing conversation, but listen (read) for a while, and you'll get the hang of it.
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