The auditorium rang with the chimes of the handbell choir on Tuesday, Feb. 9 from 7 p.m to 9:30 p.m. Lake Central Bells I and Bells II performed along with the Grimmer Middle School Bells choir for their first time in the new auditorium. The bells choir considered their performance a success.
“I think we did really well, considering that we only had two months to prepare for all of those songs, and it was just bells so we had to play a lot of them,” Katie Veronesi (11) said.
Bells prepared for a total of 12 songs in about two months. Bells encompasses a totally different atmosphere compared to that of chorus, so it comes with different challenges.
“Getting the rhythms and the music [is probably the most difficult thing]. When you’re in a choir and you’re singing you can just memorize it, but with bells you never can really memorize it; you look at the music even when you’re performing,” Taylor Lush (10) said.
It was important for the audience to be as discreet as possible, as to not distract the choir. It was crucial to their performance that they focus on the rhythm.
“What’s running through my mind when I’m performing is the count because you have to stay on track or you’ll get off [beat] and then if you get off, the people around you will get off, and it will all just fall apart, so you have to keep count,” Veronesi said.
