Listen Online! GIA 2009-2010 Handbell Catalog

Chicago Bronze is the recording group for GIA Publications' handbell catalog. Demo recordings are posted on Jeffers Handbell Supply's website for all to enjoy and, hopefully, purchase.
Chicago Bronze and GIA both work hard to make these recordings as good as they can be in a very short period of time, so that handbell directors can fully appreciate the pieces before buying multiple copies for their choirs.

You can hear Chicago Bronze's recording of the 2009-2010 catalog (with the exception of Psallite and Travelers from Nazareth, which were recorded by the Concord Ringers some time ago).

Profile: Barb Barrett

The first in a series: profiles of Chicago Bronze members!

BARBARA BARRETT of Round Lake first rang handbells in high school and rediscovered them in 1994. She is a charter member of Chicago Bronze. A native Hoosier, Barb earned a BS in Business from Indiana University. She handles
financial reporting for Zebra Technologies. Barb loves spending her free time reading, attending concerts, working puzzles, and watching college basketball.

11th year kick-off

We had our kick-off last night for the 2009/2010 season. We turned 10 years old last Spring; this will be our 11th year. We're proud of what we've accomplished in that decade, and we are looking forward to another great decade of handbell music.

We have some openings, and we're thrilled that we've had enough interest in auditions that we had to extend them over two weeks. Best of luck to all the candidates! Everyone should watch for some fresh faces this year - be sure to say hi at the next concert.

Recording Do-over

After our last recording session was washed out by the rain, we found a new recording 'studio.' It's a senior living community, where we played a concert in April. It was really pouring the day of the concert, and we noticed it stayed quiet in the auditorium.

There was still a little noise, from cars on the local road and the occasional airplane, but it was still better than our old location. The residents also made some noise earlier in the evening, but got quiet as the night went on. We resolved to play the loud pieces first next time we record.

It was also really warm and humid - because we asked that the air conditioning be turned off. Nothing worse than the A/C kicking in during the recording. That problem will also lessen in the Fall and Winter.

Hopefully this all means our next CD will be produced this Summer, and available for purchase by December.

New Gallery, Ars Viva

There's a new photo gallery posted on our scrapbook page with pictures from the Friendship Village of Schaumburg concert.

We should be getting more photos and some video posted throughout the Summer.

We're working on some music for next year's GIA catalog right now. Soon we'll be working on the music for the upcoming appearance June 26 and 27 with the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra at the Dominican University Performing Arts Center

Recording Wash Out

As mentioned earlier on this blog, Chicago Bronze records a few songs from each concert season. We're just one session away from finishing our second CD.

We were all set up in the church were we usually do our recordings when the rain started. The sanctuary roof is apparently quite thin, and the rain was very loud.

We worked for a while before our engineer (Bob from Advanced Audio) said he didn't think we could get a quality recording. The background noise sounded like a hiss like from an old tape recorder. If it had been a demo recording, we might have let it go, but we wanted the highest possible quality.

We checked the weather radar, and it did look like it would get better any time soon, so we called it a night and went home. Hopefully we'll find another time when everyone can get together before we start drifting away for summer travels.

Trip Summary

We're back from our trip to Kalamazoo. It was a long day, as most of us make the 3-hour drive in both directions on the same day, but fortunately the 6 hours of sitting in the car was broken up by 6 hours of standing behind the tables ringing bells.

It was great ringing with the other groups, the Capitol City Ringers and the Kalamazoo Ringers, and their respective directors, Jane C. Wright and Janet Van Valey.

We also debuted some live photos from the event here on our blog, a first for us. No photos from during the concert, though; we were too busy ringing.

If you weren't able to come to the concert, or to Friday's concert in Park Ridge, we hope you'll make on of our concerts next week.