The East Texas Handbell Ensemble in conjunction with the Tyler Community Concert Association will be presenting a holiday gift for the Tyler community. This is a free concert and is open to everyone in the Tyler and surrounding areas. The Ensemble will be joined by strings, percussion, and woodwinds and will perform a program featuring seasonal music on Saturday, December 5th at 7:30 p.m. at the Caldwell Auditorium, 300 S. College Street in Tyler.



The East Texas Handbell Ensemble, under the direction of Arnold Sherman, is a professional group with fifteen members and was formed in 1994 to provide ringers in the Tyler area with an opportunity to advance their ringing skills and broaden their knowledge of handbell literature. Since that time the group has performed numerous concerts throughout the Dallas-East Texas area, and other venues across the USA. In 1996 and 1998 the Ensemble rang the opening concerts for the AGEHR (American Guild of English Handbell Ringers) Area IX Festival/Conference in San Antonio, Texas, and the AGEHR Area XI Festival/Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, respectively. In January, 2000 the East Texas Handbell Ensemble was one of ten ensembles to give a Showcase Concert during Pinnacle 2000, a handbell event for advanced ringers held in Las Vegas, Nevada. In January, 2001 and 2003, the ensemble was showcased as the premier concert at the Handbell Exploration in Hershey, Pennsylvania; and in June, 2002 the group performed concerts in Reno, Nevada, Grass Valley and Stockton, California. The group also presented in concerts in Little Rock and Texarkana, Arkansas, Pinnacle 2004 Dallas, Texas, the 2005 HEB Handbell Festival, Hurst, Texas, the Chicago area and most recently was the opening concert for the 2008 National Directors' Seminar in Dallas. This will be the fifth year for ETHE to join with Tyler Community Concert Association to present the Christmas Concert for the East Texas area.



Dedicated to advancing the art of English handbell ringing, the group performs on 4 1/2 octaves of Malmark and 1 octave of Schulmerich bells, 7 octaves of Malmark Choirchimes and often incorporates various percussive and woodwind instruments into its performances which creates their highly acclaimed unique and dynamic style of musical interpretation.



Equally at home ringing sacred and secular repertoire, ETHE has dedicated a large share of its programming to American music, ringing everything from spirituals & folk hymns to ragtime, movie & show tunes. ETHE's first CD, Cafe' Noel, was released in the Spring of 2005. In addition to concertizing, the group does demonstration recordings for Hope Publishing, Red River Music, Alfred Publishing Company, Bechenhorst Press and Concordia Publishing House.

For further information about this concert or East Texas Handbell Ensemble call 903-565-4154 or got to www.easttexashandbellensemble.com.