About Me

I’m a dual citizen of the USA & UK. I arrived in the UK from France at the end of 1999. I found out about handbell ringing while living in Paris in 1997. At that time I was singing in the American Church choir and during one of the services heard a handbell choir ringing. They made the most beautiful music I had ever heard. I was immediately drawn to the instrument.

Happily I was able to spend the next year and a half learning how to play them from distinguished handbell ringer/composer/conductor, Fred Gramann who was my American Church choir conductor. After moving to Chester I immediately made contact with a local team and they took me to my first regional handbell rally in Bury. A few months later I was given some bells that were stored in the attic of my local church and the Waverton Handbell Ringers were born.

I spent twelve wonderful years buying more bells and training new ringers and learning how to be a conductor. In 2010 we won first place in the Large Ensemble division on the Chester Competitive Music Festival. A proud moment for us all.

Somewhere around the later 2000s I joined the Northern Bell Orchestra as a ringer. In 2016 I became co-conductor for two years working with Tim Willetts before taking over as Music Director in 2018. It was a dream come true.

I have a university degree in Music Education and taught music in two primary schools (600 students twice a week) for 4 years before changing my career. Music is the red thread throughout my life. I can’t live without it. I have played the piano, clarinet, saxophone, & guitar just for fun. Singing was what I loved most and I have been privileged to have sung with some really great conductors, including Sir Mark Elder when I was in the Hallé Choir. A the moment I am singing with the Chester Bach Singers under the direction of Martin Bussey.

Photography is a recent hobby of mine which takes me to some very beautiful places in the world; Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Wales and the USA. Future plans include Scotland where I can further indulge my passion for landscape photography. I’m learning how to use Lightroom & Photoshop so that I can express my creativity in a different way.

I have two very wonderful children and two even more wonderful granddaughters who live in the USA. I try to spend as much time as I can with them.

Bio Coming Soon

About Me

As a handbell enthusiast, Isaac has been keen in exploring various fields in handbell music. Having shadowed Dr John Behnke on composition and Ms Christine Chan on conducting, his accumulated experiences enabled him to further develop his passion and expertise. In 2025, he was awarded the 'Pinnacle Scholarship' and 'Vaughan Evans Scholarship' from the Handbell Musicians of America and Handbell Ringers of Great Britain respectively to participate in various international handbell events.

Isaac's keenness towards composing and arranging expanded through majoring in music at the University of Hong Kong. In 2024, his handbell ensemble piece 'Technique Buffet' was premiered in the solo performance of the 21st International Handbell Symposium in Hamamatsu, Japan. In the same year, his percussion quartet piece 'Pandora' was premiered in the HKU Department of Music Annual Concert. Isaac is a well-received emerging handbell composer with pieces continuously published in Hong Kong and the US.

Having the roles of handbell director, conductor, composer and ringer, Isaac has been devoted to the promotion of handbell artistry. He is now pursuing a Masters' degree in Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK, where he founded the school's first handbell team, the RNCM Handbell Ringers, bringing handbell music to more young musicians.

About Me

The choreography of Emily’s musical life began not with an instrument, but on the floor of a dance studio. While her early years were spent earning ballet certificates, she found herself perpetually drawn away from the centre of the room, enchanted instead by the pianist tucked into the corner. This early pull toward the accompaniment—the literal and metaphorical heartbeat of the performance—set the stage for a life defined by the joy of ensemble playing and her own development as a pianist.

It was this fascination with collective harmony that led Emily to the handbell table. To her, the handbell ensemble represents one of the highest forms of musical collaboration: a single, seamless melody woven together by many hands. It is a craft demanding immense craftsmanship and an unspoken bond of trust, where the music is only as strong as the connection between the players.

During her studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, Emily specialised in handbells as her minor instrument under the tutelage of Ms Emily Li. A rewarding highlight of this period was her collaboration on new music, notably premiering experimental works written for her graduation by Kevin M. Ko, then a senior in the music department. These formative years, alongside her time as an alto part leader for the HKBU Choir, provided a rich foundation that led to her work with the professional ensemble Gloves Handbell and the inter-church music ministry of MusiCall.

Emily’s leadership has also guided many through this "shared melody" across different spheres. Alongside her twenty-four years as Lead Conductor at the Kowloon Tong Alliance Church (Fok Lam Church), she developed a separate portfolio coaching primary and secondary school handbell teams, helping young ringers find their collective resonance. This period marked a vibrant "slash" chapter of her life as a musician and PR practitioner before her career transitioned into marketing communications.

Now based in London, Emily’s UK journey has been a musical map from North to South—beginning with St Mark’s Church in Belfast, moving to Birmingham where she joined the Northern Bell Orchestra (NBO), and finally arriving at the South East Region Bell Orchestra (SERBO). She remains deeply committed to the NBO, enjoying the dual-ensemble life and the different regional textures each group provides. Whether exploring a museum or advancing her cello playing, Emily remains a student of culture, looking forward to the chance to establish a bell choir in her own neighbourhood and continue the art of the shared melody.