Bob Gordon (Director)

Bob began his musical "career" many years ago at Virginia Tech with a troupe called "The New Virginians", learning performing skills, musicianship, the technical side of a production and how to read music. Soon God's gospel did its work in Bob's heart and the task of bringing these skills under the direction of the Lord began. Many years later, an opportunity to learn handbells was presented and that fascination began. "Its the easiest hardest thing you'll ever do" was the catchphrase at the time. God had created the foundation upon which Bob agreed to direct this choir when no qualified person was available. That was about 1993. Since that time, the group has grown and changed many times, increasing in skill and service to the church, but always with a desire to please our Savior. Bob recovers from "Handbell Highs" by traveling with his wife of 31 years, Karen, spending time on various construction projects, logging, managing the audio services of the church, playing bass, and pursuing bug filled teeth on a motorcycle. Most of all, though, he loves Jesus Christ.

Liz Onesty

Liz has been playing handbells since 2003.  She started out playing only two bells (in the wrong hands) and is now consistantly playing the six highest bells, sometimes more.  She loves finding new ways to hold and play her bells so she doesn't have to hand any of them off to other people during a song.  Her most recent big accomplishment is being able to play six in hand.

Jessica Rowberg

Jessica plays the treble bells next to Jason Rowberg! She started playing handbells years ago and only playing two in hand and then progressed to four in hand. After a while she changed places in the lineup and has only been able to play three in hand since. Jessica's biggest challenge in handbells is keeping up with Liz Onesty who stands next to her and plays almost twice as many bells and she does. :)

Jason Rowberg

Jason started playing handbells at the ripe old age of 24 and has been playing for four years now. He focuses on the mid-treble region and minimizes the need for weaving by playing with four-in-hand technique. Being the tallest one in the choir, Jason's unusually large movements during shakes and whole notes have garnered some displeasure from our director and often break up the visual artistry of the choir line. Nevertheless, Jason usually enjoys ringing and participating with the group.

Dee Bright

Lee and I were both saved at Grace Church way back in the days of Jack Arnold. Coming back to Grace has been coming home. I'm so glad we have hand bells now! There weren't any when we were here before. I started playing hand bells at Shenandoah Baptist Church around 1992. Betty Ann Cooley got me involved. I could already read music because I had learned to play clarinet in grade school. Bells practiced on Wednesday nights while Chris (our son) was in Awana. I played B4 and C5. We played really easy stuff, or at least my part was easy. However, I still got very nervous each time we played in church. I made a very good friend, Sheila, in that choir and we stay in touch even now. I only played 2 or 3 years (and had 3 different directors during that time). Because the heavier bells affected the fibromyalgia in my arms so much, I gave it up.

After coming back to Grace Church I noticed something in the bulletin asking if anyone could play hand bells, so I responded and was asked to join. It had been many years since I'd played so I was hoping for an easy part. I was asked to play F5 and G5, and decided to try it because these bells are not as heavy. What a surprise! I had more notes to play; everything seemed so much faster, and so much harder. In the other choir I had played one piece that we used mallets in and one time we played something with tower swings, but I had never heard of a "mart" or a "thumb damp" and had never used chimes. I've had to come over and practice on my own during the week to catch up with the rest of the ringers. Many thanks to all the helpful, patient ringers at Grace! This has been so good for my old foggy brain! Now, anyone want to take up western square dancing? (It is good for the legs and the brain!)

Karen Gordon

Karen has been a music lover as long as she can remember, and has been involved in vocal choral music off and on since 6th grade, one of the highlights being performing with Stan Kingma’s Virginians during the 1990's. When she came to salvation in the late 70's, worship music became a significant part of her walk with the Lord, and she has been blessed to serve in the Grace Church Choir and on the Worship Team. Although often wishing she had taken music lessons as a child (particularly envious of those who could play the piano!), joining the Handbell Choir in 1991 was her first serious attempt at instrumental music. Since the beginning, she has played the D5 and E5 bells, and will not give them up without a fight!

Courtney Rowberg

Courtney began playing handbells at Grace Church in the Spring of 2003 and has been playing there ever since. She's a college student who loves music. She has never had any formal music training but has managed to learn quite a bit since she started ringing. She's played all the bells from G4-G5 and B6-C7 at one point or another. The most She's performed with at one time were 4 notes plus sharps and flats, she played G4-C5 (sharing the G) for a few months, and for several practices, and one performance she played D5-G5.

Kathryn Martin

Kathryn started playing handbells Christmas 2008. She plays the G, G#(A flat) and A bells in the bass next to Courtney Roberg who helps her immensely while playing. Kathryn is homeschooled and simply loves to listen to all types of music! She plays the piano and recently started learning to play the guitar. Handbells has been a lot of fun for her, even if Mr. Arrington bops her on arm with a mallet occasionally.

Larry Arrington

Jeff Rowberg

Jeff started playing handbells with Grace Church in the summer of 2006 during a six-week visit to Virginia. He had a temporary position, obviously, but he enjoyed the challenge and experience. He got to play F5, F#5, and G5 for half a summer, and he was hooked. He also plays the piano, but has never been very good at sight reading that many notes at once; playing handbells forced him to learn that technique a little better.

He came back for 12 weeks the following summer, and he had a chance to continue playing. He could see the skill level of the whole choir rising, and it was really neat to watch. But only being out for relatively short visits, he was never really firmly grounded into his own position.

After he and Courtney (another ringer) got married in July of 2009 and moved to Roanoke, that changed. He is now on the bass end of the choir, playing C4, C#4, D4, and occasionally D#4 next to Larry Arrington. He gets to practice weekly and perform occasionally, and he enjoys it tremendously. (The handbell arrangements on the low end of the songs are rarely very complicated--probably because the bells are heavy!)