The 18th Western Pennsylvania Handbell Festival (WPA) was Saturday, March 30, 2019. The 19th WPA Festival will be scheduled when health and safety considerations due to the pandemic have subsided.

Three Rivers Ringers has presented and managed the WPA Festival, geared toward beginning and intermediate handbell ensembles (Level 1 and 2) since 2012. The WPA Festival is now a biannual event; the most recent festival was Saturday, March 30, 2019 with Sandra Eithun as the Festival Clinician. The 2019 WPA Festival was sponsored by Three Rivers Ringers and the Robert Morris University Band Program.

Coming to a handbell festival is a wonderful way to play with other handbell musicians, work with our Handbell Clinician, and learn more about the music and techniques that enhance our ability to create wonderful handbell experiences for both ringers and listeners. Plus, you will have lots of fun!

Our clinician in 2019 was Sandra Eithun. Sandra is a graduate of Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, with an emphasis in the Kodály teaching method, keyboard, and flute. She has been serving as Director of Music Ministry at First Congregational United Church of Christ since 1992. At her church, Sandra is the director of three handbell choirs, serves as choral accompanist, and organist/keyboardist. She is the director of the Silver Lake College Handbell Ensemble, an active member of the Handbell Musicians of America, and has served on their Area VII Board of Directors. She has been commissioned to write music for many events and for numerous individual handbell ensembles. She has over 300 pieces for handbells in publication as well as several sacred keyboard books and teaching collections for the incorporation of handbells in the music classroom.

The final registration deadline was March 1, 2019. 

Click to download the WPA Registration Packet for more details.

The post-festival concert was free and open to the public, with donations accepted, on Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 5:30 PM at Robert Morris University Yorktown Hall. The massed handbell choirs performed together, under the baton of Festival Clinician Sandra Eithun. Three Rivers Ringers performed two solo pieces at the concert.

If you have any questions, check out the Frequently Asked Questions page in the packet, or contact Cynthia Donahoe, WPA Festival Registrar (wpa@threeriversringers.org or 412.571.0273).

 
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