LGBTQ History Month: Handbell choir with LGBTQ ties seeks new ringers

As she was putting together her plans for the Dance-Along Nutcracker annual holiday concert presented by San Francisco’s LGBTQ marching band, then-director Jadine Louie fielded a request to have a handbell choir at the 1996 December performances. It came from Steve Rausch, then serving as music director at Bethany United Methodist Church.

Rausch, a gay man, had been wanting a handbell choir to perform during services and other events at the liberal congregation in the city’s Noe Valley neighborhood. That July, he got the opportunity to form one when he learned a city senior center had put three octaves of handbells up for sale.

“Jerry Lindberg, who tuned Bethany’s pipe organ, taught music and sign language (deaf signing) to the seniors there and he notified me that they were selling their handbells,” recalled Rausch, 65, who now lives with his husband in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. “We bought the bells for $3,000, primarily using my credit card and Susan Griffin, a member of Bethany and future handbell ringer, chipped in about $1,000 of the funds.”

The Winds of Freedom Band, the concert band of the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps, routinely performed free community concerts at Bethany church. So, when Rausch that summer was recruiting bell ringers, he had asked a band member to help spread the word. Half of the handbell choir’s first members ended up being Bethany congregants and the rest performers in the marching band, now known as the San Francisco Pride Band and designated as the city’s official band.

Rausch was among the inaugural eight bell ringers and had been urged by Bethany’s pastor at the time, the Reverend Karen Oliveto, to contact Louie about incorporating the handbell choir into the annual nutcracker shows. Oliveto was a devoted attendee of them each December.

“I begged and pleaded with Jadine to get us to play,” Rausch, who first picked up handbells in the mid-1980s at a church in Chicago, told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent phone interview.

Louie, who could not be reached for comment, allowed the bell ringers to perform in the lobby as attendees arrived for the event. The following year, she incorporated the bell ringers into the nutcracker performances, having them play on two songs.

“In 1998, we were also invited to play and did some music on our own, silly songs like ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’ We all wore reindeer antlers and had red noses,” recalled Rausch, who by 2012 had stopped performing in the handbell choir.

Since its inception, the handbell choir has been sponsored by Bethany UMC. There are currently nine people on the roster of handbell ringers, both LGBTQ and straight, and anyone is welcome to join it.

“It’s the church’s bell choir but it is operated independently,” explained Michael Eaton, 64, a gay man and lay leader at the church.

A founding member who continues to perform with it, Eaton said the handbell choir is looking to bolster its ranks as it readies for its fall and holiday performances this year, and prepares to mark its 30th anniversary in 2026. For the choir’s milestone year, Eaton said, “It would be nice to have a little bit of a splash” from recruiting new members.

It ideally would like to have at least 13 bell ringers. Having a larger group, noted Eaton, would mean people could miss a rehearsal or performance if they have a schedule conflict.

Plus, the choir would have a greater repertory it could perform with more members able to play different notes with the handbells.

“We could try more difficult songs,” said choir member Andrea Peng. “I’d also like to see the group growing. It is a nice way to meet people. It is very casual; nobody is going to wag a finger at you if you play the wrong note.”

A choir with appeal
The handbell choir is officially known as Bell Appeal. The name plays off the musicality of the instruments the members use, explained Eaton.

“Bells have a pealing sound,” he said.

Darwin Choy, 57, a gay man who played with the marching band and was a founding member of the handbell choir, came up with the name. Born and raised in San Francisco, Choy took up the clarinet in the fifth grade and played it in college with the marching band at UC Berkeley, from which he graduated in 1990.

Now living with his husband in Vallejo, he continues to perform with Bell Appeal but is no longer with the Pride band, in which he had first played clarinet then percussion. One reason he likes to play the handbells is they have a unique sound, said Choy.

“I like the musicality and the diverse repertoire of songs. We do everything from the secular to the sacred,” said Choy, an administrative coordinator with McDonald’s corporate offices. “I just love the variety of the music.”

As one example, a choir member rearranged pop musician Sara Bareilles’ 2013 song “Brave” that she co-wrote with Jack Antonoff and drew inspiration from a friend’s struggle with their sexual orientation. Bell Appeal performed it at its Pride concert in June, and a video of it performing the song with a guest singer from its 2017 “Let Freedom Ring” concert can be seen on its YouTube page .

“Handbells have such a unique sound, but you don’t hear them very often,” noted Choy. “I think it is very beautiful to hear them played for all kinds of songs, from popular songs and rock to jazz and music from musicals. It makes it so much more interesting than a regular handbell choir, which usually performs at Christmas time; that is huge for handbell choirs.”

Each member of the choir can cover four musical notes using three to six handbells. The handbells of differing sizes come in five unique octaves, said Eaton.

“The giant ones are 10 pounds, maybe, while the little ones are a few ounces,” noted Eaton, a San Francisco resident now retired from his career in finance.

He played guitar and piano as a child, so didn’t find it difficult to take up the handbells.

“Each bell is a note, but it is different than playing the piano. The trick is to get all of the handbells to be playing at the right time but also the different handbells to be playing either soft or loud notes,” said Eaton.

Bell Appeal’s members throughout the years have been a mix of Bethany congregants, musicians from the marching band, and local residents. The group has also performed with the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, such as in 2004 at the choral group’s beloved Christmas Eve holiday shows.

“It was one of the first LGBTQ-friendly handbell groups in the U.S.,” noted Michèle Sharik, who is the Area 12 chair for the organization Handbell Musicians of America. “Now we have several more across the country.”

Sharik and her wife, who recently moved back to the Bay Area and reside in Vallejo, both are handbell performers. A member of the Sonos Handbell Ensemble, Sharik is also the founding artistic director of the Timbré Ensemble based in Claremont, California.

On a recent Monday evening, she was holding a workshop for members of Bell Appeal in their rehearsal room at Bethany church about how to ergonomically hold and play their instruments to avoid injuries to their wrists, arms, or shoulders. Speaking to the B.A.R. beforehand, Sharik equated playing handbells as “the ultimate team sport” due to the members of a choir performing in unison to the music.

“Handbell ringing is fun and it is a big puzzle,” noted Sharik. “We have a saying, if you can tell your left hand from your right hand and count to four, you can learn to play handbell.”

When Peng and her husband relocated from Seattle to Noe Valley several years ago, Peng sought to meet new people and discovered Bell Appeal. Growing up in Washington state, she had performed with the handbell choir at her school, as had her mother, and later on her three children joined the handbell choir at their schools.

Last fall, Peng took part in her first rehearsal with the choir based at Bethany church. Having also played piano and the clarinet in her youth, she was able to put her music reading ability to use again.

“It is a fun outlet and not a huge commitment. It gets you to be playing in a group,” said Peng, 54, a world champion speed jigsaw puzzler.

The choir uses a basement room at the church to practice in, as it allows the members space to set up tables to arrange their bells on. It does so on Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

“While the practices are held at the church, and we do perform there for services three-four times a year, it is independent, and we also perform our own mini concerts,” explained Peng.

With its tagline of “not your mama’s handbell choir,” Eaton said they “tried to make it hip” for younger people to join and not just retirees.

Added Peng, “If you like it and are into it, it is hip.”

Assisting the handbell choir with its holiday performances this year as its conductor is Evan Alparone, 40, Bethany’s current music director who lives in Walnut Creek. He has held the part-time position since 2021 and has worked with Bell Appeal over the years, but this is his first time having a formal role with the group.

He performed with the handbell choir at his middle school in Hayward. 

“It is a great way to learn music,” Alparone, who is bisexual, said of being part of such a musical ensemble. “You are playing a couple notes but you get very involved. It is an interesting type of group ensemble.”

Being part of a handbell choir is a good option for someone who had musical training as a child but may have stepped away from it as an adult, he said, and now is feeling “an itch” again for an artistic or musical pursuit.

“It is a great way to get back into it, maybe in a new way but still utilizing your talents in a fun way and a social way,” said Alparone. “It is a great group of people who enjoy hanging out with each other.”

Members of the choir also can travel to perform in handbell choir concerts around the world, as Eaton has performed in Italy, Washington, D.C., and on a handbell cruise two decades ago that sailed around the Caribbean and Central America. He and others have also performed at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, with several planning to travel this December to the Florida vacation destination to take part in annual Christmas shows held at its Epcot theme park produced by Global Bronze Productions. (For more information about those shows, click here.)

Choy, a Disney fan, is planning to go. He first marched down Main Street at Disneyland in Anaheim with Cal’s marching band and then performed in handbell choir concerts at the theme parks in both Southern California and Florida. 

Doing so “is pretty awesome,” he said, as it combines “two of my favorite things into one. It is the best of both worlds. ... I love that opportunity to play something I love in a place I love to visit.”

As for Bell Appeal’s longevity, Rausch attributed it to the group becoming more secularly-oriented with its performances, which attracted interest from a more diverse array of people who wanted to join it. That occurred in 2011, his last year working at Bethany.

“The group wanted to morph and become a more community-based group and not do just church services,” he said. “I think that really led to its long-time appeal.”
 
Bell Appeal has yet to finalize its holiday concert schedule. Its next public performance will be during the 10:45 a.m. service on All Saints Sunday, November 2, at Bethany church, 1270 Sanchez Street at Clipper Street.

To learn more about the handbell choir and its upcoming events, visit its website at https://www.bellappeal.org/ . Those interested in joining the choir can email bellappealsf@gmail.com.