Bells of the Cascades

Join us at one of our annual holiday concerts

Bells of the Cascades is pleased to invite you to our annual holiday concerts, happening this year in Portland, OR, on Saturday, Dec. 19 and in Salem, OR, on Sunday, Dec. 20.

Not only will you get to experience your holiday favorites in both familiar and unusual handbell settings, but we’ll be performing alongside Bridge Town Sound, a Portland men’s chorus, on several pieces. It will be quite an evening!

View the Portland event on Facebook, or get directions on this site.
View the Salem event on Facebook, or get directions on this site.

Admission to both concerts is $10 at the door, with no one turned away for lack of funds. We hope to see you there!

Fall concert: Bells in Motion - Looking ahead to the next 25 years!

Join us for our second concert celebrating Bells of the Cascades’ 25th anniversary!

Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7:00 PM
Central Lutheran Church, 1820 NE 21st Ave, Portland
More information and directions

Featuring Bells of Concordia and Portland Boychoir, as well as a premiere performance of the winning piece from our composition contest: “Out of the Silent Planet,” by Alex Guebert. Pieces from runners up will also be premiered.

$10 admission. No one turned away due to lack of funds.

We hope to see you there!

Bells of the Cascades announces its third full-length CD: Hitting Things!

Continuing the celebration of its 25th year, Bells of the Cascades — building on the premise that handbells are a tuned percussion instrument — has created its third-full length CD, Hitting Things!

The songs on Hitting Things! pair bells with a variety of other percussive instruments and sounds from traditional drums to less traditional, and somewhat improvised, sounds.

Teaming with Michael Charles Smith (“Marimba Mike”), Bells of the Cascades ends the CD with a spell-binding arrangement of “Bolero” for marimba and handbells arranged for Bells of the Cascades by its director, David York.

Hitting Things! can be purchased for $15 directly from Bells of the Cascades via PayPal, or at CDBaby.

View more information and the track list for Hitting Things!

25th anniversary composition contest winners

Congratulations to the winners of Bells of the Cascades’ 25th anniversary composition contest, announced tonight at our concert:

First prize to Alex Guebert from Orange, California for “Out of the Silent Planet”
Second prize to Michael Mazzatenta from Corpus Christi, Texas for “Brave the Day”

Bells of the Cascades will premier the winning compositions at its concert in October — mark your calendar now!

Congratulations to the other composition contest finalists, in no particular order:

Ed Martin from Neenah, Wisconsin for “Conjuring”
John Hooper from Edmonton, Alberta for “Passacaglia Chromatica”
Nathan Whittaker from Harrisonburg, Virginia for “Penumbra”

Once again, we were very pleased with the quality and creativity with all the handbell compositions we received. Thank you!

Competition contest finalists

Bells of the Cascades is pleased to announce the five finalists in its 25th Anniversary Composition Contest. The finalists were selected from 21 entries.

The winner of the competition will be announced on April 25 at Bells of the Cascades’ 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert in Portland, Oregon.

Our five finalists:

Alex Guebert, Orange, California
John Hooper, Edmonton, Alberta
Ed Martin, Neenah, Wisconsin
Michael Mazzatenta, Corpus Christi, Texas
Nathan Whittaker, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Thank you to everyone who submitted entries. We were very pleased with the quality and creativity of the submissions!