Day 11 – Aberdeen

August 7, 2026 — Leave a comment

Since the ringers and roadies are on different schedules, we decided to break the blog up into two sections: Ringers and Roadies.

Ringers:

Today was the third day of rehearsals for the symposium! We all ate breakfast and headed over to the convention center for worship service, which started at 8:45. This was a pretty short but beautiful service. We then all went to take a full group picture together since we were all wearing our blue symposium shirts. After the picture, we headed back into the rehearsal room for daily notices and began mass rehearsal. This two-hour rehearsal consisted of four out of the nine pieces of symposium music.

Then it was time for our first workshop of the day. Today, we each had three workshops, unlike yesterday when we only had two. Some of the workshops that people in our choirs took were Handbell Olympics, Cross Stitch – Wooden Bell Ornament, Making a Korean-Style Knot Bracelet, Ceilidh Dancing, Exploring Singapore, “So You Can Play Four-in-Hand? What’s Next?” and many, many others.

Moreover, we have two people in our choirs, Chloe and Heather, who decided to play in one of the Ringing Track groups. These groups practice three new pieces of music during the workshop time periods. After everyone’s first workshop was over, we all headed to lunch.

After lunch, we had two more sections of workshops. Some of the workshops were “I’m in Charge, Help,” French-Canadian Dance, Arranging Pop Music, Latin Music and Dance, Drawing Celtic Knots, Touching a Tartan, and many more. After the workshops, we had a couple more hours of rehearsal and finished the rest of our pieces.

Lasagna was served for dinner, with sticky toffee pudding for dessert. We ended the day by watching the Ringing Track concerts, which were amazing to watch, seeing that they had just learned the music the other day.

Roadies:

Today, we took a scenic ride to the west of Aberdeenshire and the base of the Highlands. Driving through quaint towns such as Banchory and Aboyne, we eventually stopped in Ballater in the Royal Deeside area (royals have historically spent time in this area). We explored, ate, and shopped.

Crathes Castle was built by the Burnett family in the 16th century on land gifted by Robert the Bruce for helping fight the English. An extension was added in the 18th century. The Burnett family currently owns approximately 8,000 acres in this area, and the current Laird is a member of the MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament).

While visiting Crathes Castle, some roadies went and visited the castle gardens. They were in awe of the beauty of the gardens and the age of some of the shrubbery. Many say that the roadies got their garden fix in and are taking notes for their home gardens.

Signing off for tonight from Brie and Morgan. Tomorrow is our solo concert so wish us luck from wherever you are reading this.

Day 10 – Aberdeen

August 6, 2026 — Leave a comment

Today our day started with a 7:50 breakfast! It is a buffet breakfast with lots of choices, including
all kinds of eggs, pastries, lunchmeat, fruit, and yogurt. And they had peanut butter and Nutella.
Also, there is a crazy coffee machine that makes about 10 different kinds of coffee as well as
hot chocolate.

After we ate, we walked over to the convention center for some morning handbell ringing! We
got some songs to sight read like “Sweet Caroline” which we played… actually we sight read,
however I think we did pretty well. The day is divided into several different sections. Each
section we work with a conductor and the conductors come from many different countries. It is really interesting to be playing the same songs as many other handbell choirs all in a giant
room. There were a few breaks between songs but we did alright!

A little while after all the ringing and a few much needed breaks, we headed off for lunch. Lunch
was another buffet with potatoes with butter, noodles, and some other food like salad. There are often lots of buffets here so that a large number of people can eat quickly in a short time. After lunch, we gathered in the ringing hall to ring some more! We rang for another hour or so and then each of us had workshops/classes. There were all different kinds of classes. Some of
them were about musical and handbell related things and some of them were cultural. Some
people even made origami! We each went to those and had lots of fun!!

Once the workshops were over, we headed back down to the ringing hall for yet another
rehearsal. This rehearsal felt like it stretched on for eons. We made good progress on the
pieces, but all the ringers were exhausted after a long day with an early start.

Following the rehearsal, it was dinner time. For dinner there was a choice of southern fried
chicken and a chili steak bowl. Both were pretty good and all were rejuvenated after eating
something. After dinner, some ringers went back to the hotel to rest and some remained at the
hall to await the solo concert. The solo concert was very well played, with choirs from Korea,
Japan, the United States, the UK, Hungary, etc. All performed their solos beautifully. Once the
concert was done, everyone made their way back to the hotel for the night.

While the ringers were at the symposium, the non-ringers and roadies started the day with a trip to Stonehaven, a charming picture village on the coast, not too far from Dunnottar Castle. They
learned a few things about the area:
1. This is where the deep-fried Mars bar was invented and people come from all over the world to try it.
2. Stonehaven is the home of a fireball festival on New Year’s Eve.

The festivities start in the evening with food and drink and a pipe band outdoors. And then
around 11:00 PM, 50 or 60 locals prepare large metal spherical cages filled with sticks that they
light on fire. Right about midnight, after the final fire festivities, they take the fireballs down to the
water to extinguish them safely. They then came back the next morning to fetch them.

-Dante and Katrina

Day 9 – Aberdeen

August 5, 2026 — 1 Comment

Today was our official first symposium rehearsal! The day started out with a welcoming opening ceremony as a start to the symposium rehearsing week. Afterwards, while the bell ringers had a packed and exciting rehearsal to commence the day, the Roadies departed on a coach bus to Aberdeen for a day of exploration! After their leisurely ride over, the roadies immediately scoured the city for shops and places to eat as they arrived just in time for lunch at 12 PM. At P&J Live, the bell ringers worked hard through the morning as they had their first rehearsal, running through all the songs with the new conductors and choirs. At lunch time the ringers headed over to the cafeteria and got to have the tasty food provided by P&J! There were sandwiches and a delicious tomato soup.

After lunch, it was time for more ringing. This rehearsal section was our longest, lasting from 1:30 till 6:05 pm with three 10 minute breaks sprinkled in (these breaks were not enough in the end). We got to meet the rest of the directors, learning their styles and quirks as we went along. Some chose to have us play the songs as written, and others decided to rewrite it on the spot, which was personally not enjoyable. However, when discussing the piece with a ringer who didn’t tour with us, the changes were a pleasant surprise. After packing up for the day we had dinner, consisting of noodles and chicken or tofu (pictured below). After this much needed break, it was time for the first round of solo concerts. We listened to 10 groups perform ranging in size from 3 to 20+ ringers. All of the groups brought different talents to the table, as well as different types of bells and ringing techniques. A group from Scotland used a synthesizer that could read changes in the soil and leaves of a house plant, as the plant reacted to the sounds of music they were playing. That was honestly amazing! Even though the day felt like a bust overall for me, on the way back to our hotel, we spotted our first Scottish rainbow, which seemed to fix everything!

-Anna and Kayla