Tulsa Festival Handbell Ringers at the Gathering Place (12-17-2024)

https://rad-observe.com/1729/tulsa-festival-handbell-ringers-at-the-gathering-place/
>> NOTE: The above link is a post that describes more information about the Tulsa Festival Ringers & shows a photo gallery of some of their bells.

The above performance of the Tulsa Festival Ringers was on Tuesday 12-17-2024 at The Lodge at the Gathering Place, 2650 S John Williams Way E, Tulsa OK 74114. The first performance was at 4:15pm & the second at 5:00pm. The first performance was recorded from the side to avoid the bright light from the window. The second starts at 31:58 and was recorded facing the members.

On Monday 12-16-2024 I went with three friends to listen to their full Gift of Christmas Handbell Music at the St Paul's United Methodist Church, 1442 S Quaker, Tulsa OK 74120 at 7:00pm. We were sitting up front and to the right side. The following gallery shows some of the bells close up. If you select individual photos, they will be displayed full screen and you can cycle through the entire gallery. I went the next day to record the above video which wasn't the full performance of Monday.

Tulsa Festival Ringers, Inc., Tulsa's only auditioned community handbell ensemble, is more than a musical novelty; it is an ensemble of musicians who specialize in handbell ringing. The members are handbell directors and ringers from various churches throughout the Tulsa area who want to share their love of music and handbells.

In 1990, a group of handbell directors and ringers from the Tulsa area decided that they wanted to attend a national handbell symposium. Elizabeth Warriner was the director of that initial group and since they had to have a name, they called themselves the Tulsa Festival Ringers. Initially, their goal was to simply attend the one festival that they were interested in, and then disband.

However, to their surprise, they discovered that it was a lot of fun to ring in an advanced group, so they decided to keep rehearsing and performing. Elizabeth chose not to continue as the director, so the group persuaded William "Bill" Mathis, a well-known conductor/composer in the Tulsa area to lead the group.

Under Bill's leadership, the ensemble adopted a more rigorous approach to rehearsal and performances. They incorporated under Oklahoma law, adopted a set of by-laws, and held their first auditions. Obtaining non-profit status from the Federal Government in 1994 was an important step toward future operations. During Bill's tenure, TFR would produce many recordings for various handbell publishers. They would record in the sanctuary of Asbury UMC when they were still in their facility on Sheridan Rd in Tulsa.

Currently the group performs two concert seasons, one during Christmas and one every spring.