The sound of bells will fill the air at the LeGrand Center in Shelby at 2 p.m. on Feb. 25, 2017. It will be the sound of handbell choirs from across the region playing together at the free concert that concludes the NC Baptist Handbell Festival, which runs Friday, Feb. 24 - Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
"This is a rare opportunity to hear 34 handbell choirs ringing together; that is, 34 bells ringing in unison for every note on the musical page," says Jim Davidson, festival coordinator. "Someone has said that 'it is a touch of what heaven must be like.'"
Davidson serves as the events coordinator for the worship and music team of the N.C. Baptist State Convention. The LeGrand Center is actually the festival site for the western part of North Carolina - the eastern part of the state convenes for a similar festival in Wilmington.
"The 34 handbell choirs at LeGrand will come from 34 Baptist and Methodist churches in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee," says Davidson. "There are a total of close to 450 people registered to attend."
Registration opens in July for this popular festival, which often fills up within a few weeks. Participants purchase the music ahead of time and rehearse with their own choir before joining with others at the festival where they are coached and taught by a guest clinician for two days.
Brian Childers is this year's clinician. He serves on the music staff of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte and is the director of the Queen City Handbell Choir.
"Brian is an accomplished pianist, composer, conductor and clinician," says Davidson. "His choral, instrumental and handbell works have been performed frequently across the nation and abroad."
Handbell groups will begin to arrive in Shelby mid-afternoon on Friday to set up their tables, pads, table covers, music, handbells and handchimes. The amount of floor space varies with each choir according to the number of octaves of bells that they bring - from three to six octaves (or 21-45 feet in length).
"The layout of the room is an engineering nightmare, but somehow it works," says Davidson.
First Baptist Church (FBC) of Shelby is one of the local churches that will be participating in the festival.
"We are always excited to be a part of the N.C. Baptist Handbell Festival, and we're especially glad now that it's located at the LeGrand Center," says Andy Roby, minister of music at FBC Shelby. "We plan a lot of our repertoire for the entire year around the pieces that are selected for the festival because it always reflects a good variety of music for worship, with plenty of challenges to help us continue learning and growing as handbell ringers."
Roby encourages attendance at the closing concert: "It will be a glorious time of joyous music-making. The closing worship concert on Saturday afternoon is free and open to anyone, and I would urge folks to attend."
The LeGrand Center is located at 1800 E. Marion St., Shelby.

By April Hoyle Shauf

Special to Shelby Shopper & Info