Westminster Concert Bell Choir Performs in Doylestown, PA

The Westminster Concert Bell Choir, conducted by Kathleen Ebling Shaw, will present a concert titled “An English Christmas” on Wednesday, December 17 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Doylestown.  A free-will offering will be taken at the performance.

The concert celebrates the 40th anniversary of Malmark, Inc., of Plumsteadville, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of largest manufacturer of handbell and choirchime instruments.  The program will feature traditional holiday music from England.  It will include arrangements of such familiar carols as the Coventry Carol, Sussex Carol, Masters in This Hall, and In the Bleak Midwinter. 

The 16-member Westminster Concert Bell Choir is composed of undergraduate and graduate students of Westminster Choir College of Rider University. This year celebrates the 367h year of the handbell curriculum at Westminster Choir College, which was the first institution in the world to develop such a program.  

The Westminster Concert Bell Choir has appeared on Public Television’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and several holiday broadcasts of the Today Show, including one in which the ensemble was joined by NBC television personalities Katie Couric and Willard Scott.  Its holiday performances have been heard annually on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and it is included on NPR’s Christmas Around The Country II recording. Recently, the ensemble joined Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charlotte Church and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for a critically acclaimed 15-city tour entitled “A Royal Christmas.”  The choir joined singer Josh Groban, appearing on NBC’s nationally televised Lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

Conductor Kathleen Ebling Shaw is a member of the Sacred Music Department at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where she teaches classes in handbell training and conducts a second handbell choir. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, she is also director of music at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Doylestown, Pa.  Well known as a handbell clinician, Mrs. Shaw has conducted sessions for the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers both on the local and national levels.  Other engagements have included sessions for the American Guild of Organists; the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas Music Educators Conferences; Presbyterian Association of Musicians Conferences; the St. Olaf Church Music Conference; and International Handbell Symposia in Japan, England, Korea, Australia and the United States.

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church is located at 301 N. Main Street in Doylestown.  For more information call 215-348-4044 or go to www.doylestownlutheran.org.