About Tulsa Festival Ringers
The ensemble
A group that formed to attend one festival, and then never stopped ringing.
Our mission
Tulsa Festival Ringers promotes the art of handbell ringing by presenting entertaining performances of advanced handbell music to the widest possible audience, commissioning composers to create works for advanced handbell ensembles, and supporting and encouraging fellow handbell musicians.
How it started
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. Their goal was simply to attend the one festival they were interested in, and then disband.
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 and composer in the Tulsa area, to lead them.
Under Bill’s leadership the ensemble adopted a more rigorous approach to rehearsal and performance. 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 produced many recordings for various handbell publishers, recorded in the sanctuary of Asbury UMC when the church was still in its facility on Sheridan Road.
The group performs two concert seasons each year — one at Christmas, and one every spring.
Equipment
What we ring
Five octaves of Malmark handbells
One of the first purchases the ensemble ever made, funded by years of Christmas and spring concerts and a few paid performances. We still play on that original set today.
Three octaves of Whitechapel handbells
English bells, cast at the Whitechapel foundry in London. They speak with a different voice from the American sets, and we bring them out for the pieces that ask for it.
Seven octaves of handchimes
A full set, added alongside the bells. Chimes are quieter and softer-edged than bronze, and a good deal of the repertoire moves between the two within a single piece.
Percussion
Most of the usual suspects — suspended cymbal, tambourine, temple block, slap stick, triangle, and the like.
What’s next
What we’re working toward
Every bell, chime and stand the ensemble owns was paid for by the ensemble itself, a concert at a time. Two larger purchases are on the horizon now, and both of them change what we can do.
$65,000
The sixth and seventh octaves
Adding the sixth and seventh octaves of Malmark bells takes our five-octave set to the full seven — the deep bass bells below what we ring now, and the small trebles above it. It opens up the repertoire written for the largest ensembles, which at the moment we simply cannot play.
$8,000
A trailer to haul it all
A 7×14 dual-axle enclosed trailer. Bells, chimes, tables, pads, music and percussion currently travel to every concert in whatever vehicles the ringers can muster. The trailer itself is the smaller part of the cost; the rest is fitting it out so the bronze rides safely.
TFR is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. These are goals rather than separate funds — everything given to the ensemble goes into one pot, and this is what we are building it toward.