New Handbell Choir Means Beautiful Music at Avon Middle School

Avon Middle School students are making beautiful music with handbells. The school is one of only a few in the entire country that offers students the opportunity to participate in a Handbell Choir.

Avon Middle School principal, Dr. Craig Koehler has always had a love and interest for handbells. When Victoria Lero interviewed for her teaching position with the school district in 2019, Dr. Koehler asked her if she had any experience with handbells. As fate/luck would have it, Lero is the handbell choir director at the United Methodist Church of Berea and has been playing handbells since she was in middle school.

Dr. Koehler and Lero teamed up to make it happen at the public middle school level, which is rare to see or hear. It is currently an afterschool program with a goal of becoming a semester long class at Avon Middle School. The students are divided into two groups which meet once a week. There are approximately 12 students currently participating in the handbell choir.

The handbells came from a company called Schulmerich, which is a vendor that produces handmade handbells out of Pennsylvania. Lero was able to purchase the handbells through the support of the Avon Middle School Boosters and through a grant from the Avon Schools Educational Endowment Fund (ASEEF).

According to Lero, the goal of the choir is to ‘achieve what had seemed almost impossible without the help of so many.’ Public school handbell choirs are incredibly rare, but so inclusive as the students do not need to know how to read music in order to join. The goal is to make music with as many students as possible and ‘expand to great, new horizons or collaborations throughout the district.’

Lero teaches grades K-2 General Music at the Avon Early Learning Center and Avon East Elementary, as well as sixth- and seventh-grade choir at Avon Middle School.

“Handbells were supposed to take flight last year and the group held one rehearsal before the COVID-19 pandemic hit,” said Lero. “Having the groups started now and able to produce music is a dream come true. I am incredibly thankful for the support of so many students, colleagues, and administration for trusting me to start this fascinating group. It can only go up from here.”

The students are truly enjoying the experience, too.

“I signed up with my friends to be in the choir,” said sixth-grader Aaron Davis, 12. “I like music and also play percussion in the band. The handbells were a little hard at first to get the movement down because you have to flick them quickly at the end, but it is very fun to try to play.”

Sixth-grader Isaac Kester, 11, is also grateful for the opportunity to participate in the handbell choir.

“I like music and this is something fun to do with my friends,” said Kester. “I thought handbells would be interesting. I have a piano at home and I also sing.”