Westminster Concert Bell Choir Performs May 4

The Westminster Concert Bell Choir, conducted by Kathleen Ebling Shaw, will present its annual spring concert on Saturday, May 4 at 4 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton.

A preview of the choir’s 2013 National Tour, the program features original compositions and arrangements of familiar works for handbells including a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Fugue In G Minor, Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5, and the traditional Irish folk song Londonderry Air. The ensemble will also perform contemporary works including Erroll Garner’s Misty and Paul Desmond’s Take Five.

The Westminster Concert Bell Choir performs on the world’s largest range of handbells: 8 octaves. The ensemble has appeared on Public Television’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and several holiday broadcasts of the Today show.  Most recently, it performed with singer Josh Groban in NBC’s nationally televised lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

Conductor Kathleen Ebling Shaw is a member of the faculty at Westminster Choir College, where she is teaches handbell training and conducts a second handbell choir. Well known internationally as a handbell clinician, she is also director of music at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Doylestown, Pa.

Tickets for this concert are $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors.  To order call 609-921-2663 or go online to www.rider.edu/arts.