 
Area III Events Quick Index
Area III Sponsored Events
2009 Area III Spring Festivals - Please follow this link for spring festival information.
Ocean City, MD, March 13 & 14, 2009
Richmond, VA, March 27 & 28, 2009
Area III will offer two Spring Festivals in 2009 - one in Ocean City, Maryland and one in Richmond, Virginia. These events offer Massed Ringing and Classes for all participants, opportunities for Rally Ringing, and a Genesis Track (for advanced-beginning choirs.)
Choirs, directors and individuals are welcome to attend. You may choose to attend classes only or even ring full-time. Clinicians teaching classes in their area of specialty, director classes, handbell merchandise vendors and a well-respected massed conductor are highlights of these events.
2009 Blue Ridge Festival - Please follow this link for festival information.
Flat Rock, NC, April 24 & 25, 2009
Area III sponsored event for 2009.
2008 Area III Youth Festival - Please follow this link for youth festival information.
Richmond, VA, November 21 & 22, 2008
This event is primarily
geared for youth handbell choirs. Ringers will be lead in mass ringing
under the direction of a guest conductor. Tins (2-3 octave choirs) and
Coppers (3-5 oct. choirs) ring together in massed sessions as well as in
their own sessions. Repertoire is prepared before attending this event.
Ringers also attend classes on many different topics. The conference
begins on a Friday afternoon and concludes on Saturday afternoon. It is
offered every November, usually the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Bravissimo - FOR INFORMATION ONLY, event has already occured for this year.
Gaithersburg, MD, June 6 & 7, 2008
Community and performing groups…get out your calendars now! Plans are underway for a unique event to help network all
styles and sizes of community and performing groups. This event will focus not on performing, but practical and creative
solutions and ideas for the challenges unique to performing ensembles. Directors will lead the reading sessions. The New
Event Committee is in the process of selecting faculty.
Area III Fall 2008 Directors' Seminar - Please follow this link for seminar information.
September 19 & 20, 2008
Clinicians: Michael Kastner
Beginning Director Track: Nick Hanson
Centreville UMC Centreville, VA
POC: Fran Underwood (funderwood@messiahumc.org)
Area III annually
offers an experience for directors either in the format of a full-day
directors seminar or as a Read and Ring Session, or sometimes combining
the two events and including ringers as well. Highly-qualified teachers
and directors lead sessions for new and experienced directors and lead
reading/ringing sessions on a variety of handbell music.
Area III Composition Contest
Interested in submitting a piece in our contest? Please follow
this link.
Area III Online Calendar
We maintain an online database of upcoming events submitted to us by
Area III members and web surfers like you. View the calendar here.
(will open a new window, please turn off pop-up blocking)
Submitting New Events
The Area III Calendar is interactive. To submit new events, please do the following:
- Click the '+' symbol on the day you wish the event to occur.
- Fill in as much information as you can for the event.
- When finished, click Save.
Note: Events will not be visible on the calendar when first submitted.
- Your event will be forwarded to the Area III webmaster for approval. (Spam protection)
- Once approved, your event will become visible to everyone on the public calendar.
Thank you! This calendar can only be kept up to date if you help keep it up to date!
Upcoming events at a glance...
Raleigh Ringers 2008 Schedule posted
Tourism / Travel Links
Informational sites for areas where events are being held (opens in new window)
Event Terminology
The information provided on this page originally appeared in the
April 1995 issue of the Bell-O-Gram.
Bronze - refers to a division of massed ringing where
difficult/complex repertoire is played by advanced-level choirs. Most of
the time, Area III requires that choirs submit an audio recording and a
copy of a program of the choir publicly performing ALL the repertoire to
be used in the Bronze division to Area III before being accepted into
the Bronze division.
Coppers - refers to a division of massed ringing for choirs
that ring with a three-, four-, five- or more octave set of handbells.
Since the metal alloy (bronze) in which the bell is made has a larger
percentage of copper, the term "Coppers" is used to denote handbell
choirs that play on larger octave sets of handbells.
Tins -refers to a division of massed ringing for choirs that
ring with a two- or three-octave set of handbells. Since the metal alloy
(bronze) in which the bell is made has a smaller percentage of tin, the
term "Tins" is used to denote handbell choirs that play on smaller
octave sets of handbells.
Spring Festivals - an event, geared primarily toward
ringers, where choirs come and ring, simultaneously, repertoire under
the direction of a guest conductor. The participants are expected to
purchase and rehearse the repertoire prior to attending the conference.
In addition, the choirs are usually expected to bring all the equipment
required for ringing, including the handbells, foam pads, table
coverings, mallets, toolkits, etc. Tables may or may not be provided at
the site, so you may also be required to bring tables as well. At some
conferences, classes may also be offered on various topics, such as
four-in-hand/shelley techniques, basic techniques, advance techniques,
bass bell techniques, etc.
Seminar - an event, geared primarily toward directors, where
massed ringing and/or classes are offered. The massed ringing
rehearsals, which are participants are expected to attend, are offered
to provide more ringing experience for the directors; to provide insight
and experience in solving the possible problems that face ringers; and
to provide a vehicle for the guest clinician in demonstrating ways of
presenting new methods and techniques.
Track - a course of study; a set of classes, offered in
sequence, related to a particular topic. For example, a Beginning
Directors' track would consist of a set of classes all geared toward
providing instruction to beginning directors. Each class would cover a
particular subject that would be beneficial to a beginning director. |
