Hear the Westminster Concert Bell Choir

Westminster Concert Bell Choir will play on Saturday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, which is located at 585 East Colorado Boulevard in the Playhouse district of downtown Pasadena.

The concert — part of the church’s Friends of Music at PPC concert series —is free of admission charges (a freewill offering will be taken). Free parking is available and the church is handicap accessible.

The Westminster Bell Choir is composed of students at Rider University’s Westminster Choir College, which was the first institution in the world to develop such a program. Hailed for its virtuosity, the ensemble performs on the largest range of hand bells in the world – 8 octaves, from C1 to C9.

Many of the bells are made of bronze and range in weight from four ounces to 11 pounds; the Choir also uses the large “Basso Profundo” aluminum-cast bells that are a new phenomenon in hand bell ringing.

The Choir supplements its hand bells with a six-octave set of Malmark Choirchime® instruments from C2 to C8 – the widest range in existence. Led by Kathleen Ebling Shaw, the group appears regularly on radio and television and has made 11 solo recordings.

The Westminster Concert Bell Choir has appeared on Public Television’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and several holiday broadcasts of the Today show, including one in which the ensemble was joined for a performance by NBC television hosts Katie Couric and Willard Scott. Its holiday performances have been heard annually on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and it is included on NPR’s Christmas Around The Country II recording. The choir has performed at Carnegie Hall twice during the Christmas season. Most recently, the choir was featured on New Jersey Network’s State Of The Arts program.

More concert information is at www.ppcmusic.org.