Baylor Handbells Ring on April 22

by Richard Veit

The Baylor University Handbell Choir will present its annual spring concert at 6 p.m. Thursday in Meadows Recital Hall. This 12-member ensemble performs under the direction of Debra L. Jackson, music associate/organist of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco.
The program will open with one of Johann Sebastian Bach's most familiar organ works, the "Little" Fugue in G minor, arranged for handbells by Michael Kastner. That will be followed by Martha Lynn Thompson's arrangement of the New Pizzicato Polka by Johann Strauss Jr.
Two other classical pieces will be heard next -- Michael R. Keller's arrangement of the Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns and Douglas J. Benton's duet arrangement of Bach's "Siciliano." The latter will feature ringers Michael Pace and Leah Delafield.
After intermission, the Baylor Handbell Choir will perform sacred, folk and popular material. Cathy Moklebust's Festival Sanctus will be followed by Anna Laura Page's arrangements of the folk melodies "On Jordan's Stormy Banks" and "Tis a Gift to Be Simple" (popularized by Aaron Copland in his ballet Appalachian Spring) and Betty Garee's handbell setting of "Land of Rest."
The final portion of the program will consist of "Rhapsody in Color" by Everett Jay Hilty and Valerie Stephenson's arrangement of the familiar Harry Warren hit "Chattanooga Choo Choo."
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.