Celebrating 35 Years

Who would have thought that a handbell choir begun 35 years ago on a dream would have grown to become the first community handbell choir in Nebraska? Our name has changed throughout the years, but the goal has remained the same: to promote the art of handbell ringing.

Joyce Miller founded the choir in 1988 with a generous grant in memory of Ruth Giger, an Omaha native and renowned piano and organ teacher, who was president of the Omaha Music Teachers Association and the Nebraska Federation of Music Clubs. Ruth’s love of music lives on today in five octaves of Schulmerich bells purchased with that grant, creating the Fremont Community Handbell Ensemble.

Our beginning was less than auspicious. Finding a place to practice and store equipment can be difficult, and we were fortunate to rehearse at Midland Lutheran College’s chapel. There was just one catch. We did not practice in the chapel. Our rehearsal space was under the chapel. We entered from steps outside leading into the basement into a tiny storage room. The ceiling was low and there was no room to walk between the tables. We shared our space with the boiler room, which was known, on more than one occasion, to provide its own notes as we practiced! In spite of it all, it was our place to practice, and we literally had nowhere to go but up!

Our rehearsal space changed often over the years, from that chapel basement to several churches and a retirement center. We even crammed ourselves into a small living room of a church parsonage, where (we are not making this up) one of our ringers, 9 months pregnant, crawled under the table to get out, went to the hospital that night to give birth, and returned to rehearsal the following week, baby in tow!

Our name has also changed several times. First we were the Fremont Community Handbell Ensemble, then the Omaha Metro Handbell Choirs, consisting of both the Ambassador Ringers, River City Ringers and, for a few years, even a Youth Community Handbell Choir. Later, the two adult choirs merged and now, for over 15 years, we are known as the River City Ringers of Omaha. The name covers not only the area where our ringers live but also where we typically perform, spanning from Hastings, Nebraska, in the west to Omaha, across the Missouri river to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the east, and beyond.

There certainly isn’t space to list the myriad of places we have performed in our 35 years. Sure, there are the typical places, like churches, senior living facilities and cultural venues. We have performed Veteran’s Day concerts, All Hallow’s Holiday Festivals, John C. Fremont Days summer festival, weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, numerous concert series, and handbell festivals. And our smaller six-ringer choir, Bit of Bronze, has performed at libraries, hospitals, private parties, book stores, sporting goods stores, and at Christmas tree lightings. However, there are several noteworthy memories that will forever be inscribed in the annals of River City Ringers.

• While playing in the entryway before an Omaha Royals baseball game at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, the sun was so bright we could barely see the music. And it was so hot – how hot was it? It was so hot that the handles of our Malmark bells began to soften and bend as we rang!

• Bit of Bronze arrived to provide after-dinner music for a law firm Christmas party. As we entered, we discovered not only that the Italian restaurant was t iny and dimly lit, but that the party-goers were already rip-roaring drunk, very happy, and rowdy! As soon as we started playing, half the crowd started singing along, while the other half was shouting out requests for other songs.

• And we can’t forget the coldest Bit of Bronze concert, playing outside in the snow at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. How cold was it? So cold that we had to put the bells under our armpits to warm them up! And the wind was blowing in our faces so hard we could barely see the music because of the tears in our eyes.

• Following a Christmas concert with the Nebraska Brass Band, we packed up our handbells, chimes, and equipment and moved them outside for loading. We waited, waited, and waited for our fellow ringer and fearless U-Haul truck driver, Kristen Oertell, to bring the truck. But alas, the truck would not start! The culprit? One failed engine starter!

Since 2020, RCR has been under the direction of Rick Richards, and with his guidance we have continued to grow musically, learning how to bring out the emotion and mood of the music in ways that touch both the audience and us. And we are excited to perform and celebrate our 35 years at the Area 8 Festival this June in Columbia, Missouri. Of course, River City Ringers would not have existed this long without grants from the Paul and Oscar Giger Foundation, Fremont Community Foundation, the Baer Foundation and Nebraska Arts Council, as well as many generous gifts from our patrons and all who have supported us. We are truly humbled, blessed and thankful. Interested in ringing with us? Check out the auditions link on our website. And now, here is the River City Ringers, 35 years young, By The Numbers:

• 15,894+ YouTube views
• 394 Titles in our music library
• 178 Handbells, handchimes and silver melody bells. 239 if we include a 5-octave set we can borrow for those tricky passages
• 100 Degrees playing outside at a baseball game
• 81 Current and former ringers
• 30+ Churches performed in • 7 Hand trucks (dollies)
• 7 Ringers freezing their keisters off at a snowy Nebraska outdoor tree lighting
• 5 Committees that help with fundraising, performance ideas, social media, etc.
• 3 Online COVID concerts
• 2 Commissioned pieces
• 2 Ringers with 20+ years in RCR.
• and 1 Broken U-haul truck!

Written by Karen Harned, published in Handbell Musicians of America Area 8 Quaverss and HMA Overtones