The weekend after the Westminster Choir College Commencement, the Westminster Concert Bell Choir and conductor Kathleen Ebling Shaw will fly to San Francisco to begin a three-week national concert tour.

The ensemble will present 14 concerts in nine states as they journey back to New Jersey. Its program will feature original compositions and arrangements of familiar works for handbells including a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Fugue In G Minor, Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5, and the traditional Irish folk song Londonderry Air. The ensemble will also perform contemporary works including Erroll Garner’s Misty and Paul Desmond’s Take Five.

The Westminster Concert Bell Choir performs on the world’s largest range of handbells: 8 octaves. The ensemble has appeared on Public Television’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and several holiday broadcasts of the Today show.  Most recently, it performed with singer Josh Groban in NBC’s nationally televised lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

Conductor Kathleen Ebling Shaw is a member of the faculty at Westminster Choir College, where she is teaches handbell training and conducts a second handbell choir. Well known internationally as a handbell clinician, she is also director of music at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Doylestown, Pa.

Westminster Concert Bell Choir 2013 National Tour Schedule

Monday, May 20  7 p.m.
Valley Church
10885 No. Stelling Rd.
Cupertino, CA
408 739-4642

Tuesday, May 21  7:30 p.m.
Davis United Methodist Church
1620 Anderson Road
Davis, CA
530-756-2170

Wednesday, May 22  7:00 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church
501 El Dorado St.
Monterey, CA
831-373-3031

Friday, May 24 7 p.m.
American Lutheran Church
1085 Scott Drive
Prescott, AZ
928-445-4348

Sunday, May 26  4 p.m.
Orangewood Presbyterian Church
7321 N. Tenth St.
Phoenix, AZ
602-870-3025

Wednesday, May 29  7 p.m.
Mountain View Presbyterian Church
8601 Del Webb Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV
702-341-7800

Thursday, May 30  7 p.m.
Crossroads United Methodist Church
599 30 Road
Grand Junction, CO
970-242-0577

Friday, May 31  7:30 p.m.
St. Peter Lutheran Church
9300 E. Belleview Avenue
Greenwood Village, CO
303-770-9300

Sunday, June 2  4 p.m.
First United Methodist Church
600 SW Topeka Blvd.
Topeka, KS
785-233-8100

Monday, June 3  7 p.m.
Ladue Chapel
9450 Clayton Rd,
Saint Louis, MO
314-993-4771

Tuesday, June 4  7 p.m.
St. John Lutheran Church
6630 Southeastern Avenue
Indianapolis, IN
317-352-9196

Wednesday, June 5 7:30 p.m.
Westminster Presbyterian Church
125 N. Wilkinson St.
Dayton, OH
937-223-7285 

Thursday, June 6 7 p.m.
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
50 North Prospect Street
Akron, OH
330-376-5154

Friday, June 7 7:30 p.m.
St. Paul's Lutheran Church
25 W. Springettsbury Ave.
York, PA
717- 843-8155
Co-host:
Unitarian/Universalist Congregation of York