Current HMC Board of Directors

The Handbell Musicians of Canada Board 

Chair	Ellen Ramsay	Pentiction, BC
Past-Chair	Patsy Andrews-Vert	Starbuck, MB
Chair-Elect	vacant
Secretary	Lisa Kyriakides	Newmarket, ON
Treasurer	Cathy Koski	Edmonton, AB
Membership Secretary	Kathie Zalasky	St. Albert, AB
Director-At-Large	Imran Amarshi	Burnaby, BC
Director-At-Large	Ian Costinak	Saskatoon, SK
Director-At-Large	John Hooper	Edmonton, AB
Director-At-Large	Christie Noseworthy	Nanaimo, BC
Director-At-Large	Jim Winslett	Calgary, AB
Director-At-Large	Tracey Wright	Winnipeg, MB

To see the HMC Board biographies and candidate statements from our 2020 election, click to become a member and login.

Musings From the Board

Each month we’ll be featuring a few words from one of our board members so you can get to know your national representatives. Check back each month to meet us all!

Patsy Andrews-Vert - Past Chair

I have been involved with music as long as I can remember. Making music gives me great joy! From sitting on the front step with my dad playing guitar and singing “You Are My Sunshine”, to singing the whole “Mary Poppins” book with my aunt playing piano. From singing “How Great Thou Art” with my grandpa and my aunt playing the piano to singing in Junior Church Choir when I was 4 and memorizing all the words because I couldn’t read. And on and on it goes.

On the first day of Grade 12 I decided I was going to pursue music. I graduated from Brandon University with a Bachelor of Music Education and have been teaching music of some form or another really since Grade 11.

Handbells came into my life by marrying my husband Ron, a Lutheran Pastor. The church had been gifted a 2-octave set of Schulmerich Handbells. What do you do with these? I knew I could do it, I just needed direction. That led us both to attend a session at the International Music Camp under the direction of Blanche Kangas and Fred Merrett. We have been ringing ever since. That was 34 years ago. I have used bells in schools, churches, workshops, and seniors’ homes and conducted and/or led workshops in BC, AB, MB, ND, and Australia. I direct the Trinity Lutheran Handbell Choir in Starbuck MB. I play in Ring Out! a quartet based in Winnipeg, and I play in the Rochester Ringers, a Winnipeg community group.

I am so honoured to have had the opportunity to Chair the former Handbell Guilds of Canada and the Interim Board of the Handbell Musicians of Canada. Many people have put in many, many hours to make this organization possible. I do hope that we can soon meet, in Canada, for a National Ringing event. It has been a long time coming, but I’m sure we are all ready to greet each other “face to face”.

This summer, I am looking forward to attending the International Handbell Committee meeting in Nashville TN, as well as the International Handbell Symposium. This will be my 5th Symposium and it will be great to be able to connect with fellow ringers from around the world.

“Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common.” -Sarah Dessen

Christie Noseworthy - Director at Large

Where the Magic Happens

I grew up with music around me. Often, my mom would be invited to sing at churches and when I was 3, she had been asked to sing for a church celebrating its reopening after a major renovation. There were over 500 people in attendance so it was a big deal! All the way there, I asked if I could sing with her, but of course, she said no. Once we arrived, however, I approached the Pastor and asked him instead, and he said yes! I remember that feeling of excitement and pride and have since realised how important that day was for me, my mom and those in attendance.

When I was 9, a bell choir came to perform at our church and although I had started with courage at a young age, I was now quite shy. However, I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked how old I’d have to be to join their choir. The director had taken notice of my family sitting together and told me to come to their next rehearsal with my mom, who had also asked. We performed for many church services and did guest performances for others. I'd invite my friends to church to hear the bells, but I remember thinking how cool it would be to play at my school and share the gift of bells outside the church. A couple of years later, a new director joined us and she did just that. She reached out into the community and we performed in nursing homes, retirement homes, children’s hospitals, and various malls during the Christmas season. We were invited to perform on TV as a special feature on several newscasts and as we became more popular we were invited to perform for weddings, company Christmas events, parties, the Toronto Christmas market, Santa Day in a neighbouring town, and we were even invited to make a Swiss Chalet commercial. Feeling pretty confident with our performance opportunities year round, we recorded a Christmas CD and sold it at our different events to help support our handbell program.

Over the years, other opportunities have continued to knock… When I was 18, a small group of us performed bells in an episode of “Wind at My Back”, a spin off from “Road to Avonlea” and even more recently, in a Hallmark Movie, “Christmas Bells are Ringing”.

So, as we move toward planning, booking and performing for live audiences again, I encourage you to go out of your comfort zone and reach out to other venues and bring the joy of music to the community.

That is where the magic happens. 

Tracey Wright  - Director at Large

In grade school, my piano playing friends in the handbell choir got the top treble melody parts, while I typically got the easy to read D5. I have been ringing handbells since 1983 and, to be honest, I still can’t read treble notes on the ledger lines without counting them out and thinking about it.

Although I don't consider myself to be Raleigh Ringer level, I had the opportunity to ring level 5 music, under the direction of Cathy Moklebust at the International Music Camp in 1997 and it felt amazing! Any handbell ringer can attend a camp, festival, or symposium and be coached by the BEST handbell clinicians and composers In - The - World; how crazy and awesome is that?

My passion for handbells though is in the act of performance itself and I have been blessed to be in two extraordinary performing groups; Zodiac Tapestry in Saskatoon through the late 80s and early 90s, and more recently, Rochester Ringers in Winnipeg. During a performance is when I make the identity leap from ringer to musician. I even have lucky performance shoes!

During my short stint as a clinician in the early 2000s, I created a workshop called Mood Swings. The basis of the activities were to put full facial and body expression along with the ringing techniques to match the mood of the piece you were playing. Keeping in mind, of course, this varies with your audience, as performances for family, seniors, and church are most often light, welcoming, and fun.

So, the next time you perform, regardless of the venue or complexity of the music, when you place your hands on your bells, I encourage you to quietly whisper to yourself “I am a musician”. Because you are.

Photo from left to right: Cathy Moklebust, Fred Merrett, Carol Petrie and me, Tracey Wright, at the International Music Camp in 1997.

Cathy Koski - Treasurer

It would be hard to imagine my life without bells, they’ve been an integral part of it for over the last 40 years!

Bells were introduced into my high school in the late seventies by our then band teacher Mr. deFrece, now a retired U of A professor who still directs the University’s handbell choir. As green as we were, that first Christmas concert where the bells played was magical, the audience loved them and I was hooked. Throughout university I rang with the Robertson-Wesley United Church handbell choir and subbed for other choirs. I played with Fred Merrett’s Bronze Harmony and was a founding member of Jubiloso, Bells of Concordia University. Along the way I’ve been on the ALGEHR board and the Robertson-Wesley Music Society board and am a founding board member of Classic Bronze. I also had the privilege to be the registrar/treasurer for the 1992 International Handbell Symposium (IHS) in Edmonton.

Handbells have given me the chance to travel locally – Handbell Discoveries and Ringing Links – to internationally: IHS in Japan (1986), Australia (2006), and Vancouver (2016); and a European Handbell tour in 2017.

I like the fact that audiences always love the bells, you can play wrong notes, have a piece go terribly wrong and they still love the music. They are so fulsome in their thanks for the playing, that it’s almost a humbling experience.  You want to play well and when a piece is going well in performance there is that feeling of oneness with the choir, there’s this sense of accomplishment. What a feeling of camaraderie! That’s what happens in a bell choir, people from different walks in life come together to create great music and great friendships.

Hoping everyone can get back to ringing in 2022!

Imran Amarshi - Director at Large

Dear fellow handbell musicians,

My name is Imran Amarshi and I am a handbell enthusiast based in Vancouver, British Columbia. I was first introduced to handbells by my talented elementary school music teacher, Jan Nordstrand, who you may recognize from a past Ringing Link or IHS2016. Since then, handbells have always been part of my life in various ways. My favourite handbell memories include rehearsing weekly with my friends throughout our university years in Synchronous Handbell Choir, conducting at IHS2016 alongside Jan, and performing for the first time with my current students in the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Recently, I have been introducing handbells to the teacher candidates from the local university that come into my program for their student teaching practicums. It has been so great to see their reactions when they see just how unique and varied our instrument really is!

With the holiday season approaching, I can’t think of a more festive thing to do than perform outside, preferably undercover when it’s snowing, with a peppermint white mocha from Starbucks hidden under the table. My colleagues at work have been asking me daily when the handbell choir is going to start carolling through the hallways. I am so excited for the upcoming winter season and hope that we are able to reconnect as a community soon.

Ian Costinak - Director at Large

I rang my first handbell at 11 years old, in the basement of a church on a late December morning. This was the same morning I had seen a handbell for the first time - the choir played for the service and I was so visibly dazzled that the director herself spotted me in the pew and came over to recruit me. I grew up playing handbells in southern Ontario, with festivals aplenty and new faces from both sides of the border. I felt at home in between workshops, gloves hanging stylishly over my back pockets, loosely supervised around market stalls and bass chimes taller than me.

I moved to Calgary 3 and a half years later, already signed up to ring with a new choir. There were two ringers around my age - a range I’ve expanded each year as I’ve gotten older. When I mentioned handbells to school friends, a lot of them remarked “I remember handbells, I played those in elementary school!” This was news to me. Church and handbells had become so inextricably linked I was starting to think it was a Christian instrument. “I play in an advanced choir,” I would explain. “Like, pro league.”

I was 16 at my first Classic Bronze, and at this point was quite comfortable in my role as some sort of youth bell prodigy. I had a hard time casually socializing with the ringers around me, but if I could talk technique and hit my notes with flair, it felt like I belonged there. (I was no prodigy, mind you, I’d just been playing for 5 years).

I never did register for the youth tracks at festivals - I could ring more advanced repertoire, and I wanted to stay with my choir. But I wondered what it might be like to have the best of both worlds, to find other young ringers who have graduated from their elementary school choirs and found places to keep playing.

I think handbells are awesome, are the ultimate musical team sport, and I think more youth would jump at the opportunity if they only knew where to find them! Finding more ways for youth to discover the wonders of handbells is a big part of why I wanted to join this board. It would be a joy to pass the torch to another young musician, and see our bright, brassy future unfold.

Kathie Zalasky - Membership Secretary

As a child growing up in small town Alberta I desperately wanted to be in a band. Our schools were too small and didn’t offer that so I had to be happy with piano lessons until we moved waaaay up north and there wasn’t even a piano option. So…many years later at St. Albert United Church when Camille Ream asked if there was interest in a handbell group I leaped up for the opportunity to be on a team AND in a band! Yes! I’ve had the privilege to ring under Camille, Dr. John Hooper, and Debbie Rice; I am a founding member of Jubiloso! and I ring in our church choir, as well as directing there when the need has arisen.

Handbells are this old (ancient?) music instrument that tug at people’s heart strings when they hear them. They are easy to learn and take years to get proficient on. However, having said that, handbells provide an easy entry into a team music sport if you’re willing to invest the time into learning the techniques and figuring out how to blend with those around you!

I have collected symposia since I went to the International Symposium in Orlando and continue to be astounded at the friends I have gained through handbells. It’s kind of like what I would imagine a Star Trek convention to be like…….where did all these people with a similar interest come from?

It won’t be long till I’m looking for a “Vintage Bronze” group to ring with. I stand in admiration and thankfulness for all who have gone before me, who lead us, and who will carry us into the future!

Jim Winslett - Director  

I was first introduced to handbells back in the 90s at a church conference workshop. After our two hour workshop and our little Level One performance afterward, a member of our congregation bought a three-octave set of bells for us and the music director informed me that I’d be directing the group, because I had “more experience” with handbells than him. Talk about jumping into the deep end!

I directed that group for 17 years and we performed for two church services every other Sunday, plus every service in Advent, two yearly concerts, and at least two festivals per year. We were busy, but we loved it.

When I moved to Calgary (I married a Canadian who refused to live in the Texas heat), I found a handbell group to join and eventually helped launch the Bow River Handbell Musicians Society, which currently has four performance groups. I play in three of them.

All of that came to a screeching halt when Covid-19 put a stop to rehearsals and performances, though. Like many, I felt there was a handbell-shaped hole in my life that needed filling. At the same time, the need to stay home caused me to seek out diversions that could be done in solitude - and Lego came to the rescue. I rekindled my love of the little bricks from my childhood, bolstered by Lego’s recent focus on appeasing their adult fans. It wasn’t long before the pile of bricks inspired me to combine that hobby with handbells.

The first thing I did was create a little diorama of one of our performing groups. Bow River Bells came to life in plastic, with Lego “minifigs” representing our members as closely as I could get and some out-of-the-box thinking regarding the instrument, as Lego don’t currently have a handbell piece. The smaller bells are “inverted cone with bar” in tan and the bass bells are “goblet” pieces in pearl gold with the bases snipped off.