Hillsboro group to play at Bush inaugural

By RICHARD KOE

HILLSBORO -- The Bells of Tualatin Valley Junior Academy, a 13-member junior high handbell choir from a local Seventh-Day Adventist School, will be the only group from Oregon performing at President George W. Bush’s inaugural parade in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20.

“Ring of Fire,” the handbell choir whose name is taken from the volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, will perform before and after the inaugural parade. It might also play at one or more of the several inaugural balls in the nation’s capital.

Choir Director Jason Wells said bellringers, ranging from seventh to 10th grades, will perform several classic American songs, including John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” and Katherine Lee Bates’ “America the Beautiful.”

The group was chosen by the presidential inaugural committee from a field of nearly 300 bands, horse units, and color guards.

“Ring of Fire” will be among more than 10,000 performers at the inaugural parade, according to Tom Palmatier of the U.S. Department of Defense. Events will span four days, culminating on Saturday, Jan. 20, with the swearing-in ceremony and inaugural balls.

Wells said the “Ring of Fire” will need $10,000 for airfare and other expenses for the trip. Tualatin Valley Junior Academy plans to raise the money through fund raisers and by selling the handbell choir’s compact disc, which is available from the academy or at the Seventh-Day Adventist Bookstore in Clackamas.

The Hillsboro bellringers view themselves as a different kind of handbell choir. They described themselves on the front of the CD jacket as “seekers of harmony, celebrators of life, traveling musicians, wandering friends, passionate exuberance, and exceptional zeal -- with fire.”

Wells, who is also the group’s founder, thrives on the explosive combination of passionate youth and the brilliance of handbells. He was a handbell ringer in Southern California in his formative years and worked for many musical artists at various handbell conventions.

He later started a handbell choir in the island of Palau in 1993. Two years later Wells directed a handbell choir while finishing his senior year at Walla Walla College.

In 1996 Wells accepted a position at Tualatin Valley Junior Academy, teaching music, English, and history. A year later, with the school’s purchase of a five-octave set of Malmark handbells, the “Ring of Fire” adventure began.

Over the past four years, the “Ring of Fire” has performed more than 100 times, traveled some 8,000 miles in a yellow school bus, appeared on TV morning shows, and performed in Victoria, B.C., San Diego, and many stops in-between.

The CD, recorded on June 13-14, 1999, at the Sunnyside SDA Church near Mall 205 in southeast Portland, contains 16 selections from a wide range of musical tastes, ranging from “Kum-Ba-Ya” and Christmas selections to African and Israeli songs. There are also classical tunes, polkas, and overtures.

For more information about the CD or the bell ringers. contact Wells at the TV Junior Academy, 21975 S.W. Baseline Road, Hillsboro, OR 97123, 503-649-5518, or jasonw@tvja.org