How To Host The Gateway Ringers
We're a performance group, and we want to ring for you, and help your ringers!
We're available for concerts, event entertainment, workshops & ringer training.
As a not-for-profit group, we rely upon income from our performances to further
our endeavors. We do concerts for both fixed fees and for free-will offerings taken during the concert. We're
willing to work with you (everybody has a budget to keep!). To host us in concert, simply
follow the checklist below:
We generally are able to perform on Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sunday afternoons or evenings.
Workshops & ringer training events that do not require the full group or a
concert performance can be scheduled anytime group members are available.
Our repertoire is set for spring and fall in December, and Christmas repertoire is set in October. Special
requests for pieces must be given as early as possible and through our Director. We will try to
accommodate you if possible.
Physical space - Gateway sets up handbell tables in a variety of
configurations. We use up to 15 3-foot tables during performance.
The Gateway Ringers do publicize, but anything your venue can do to assist us with publicity is greatly appreciated.
We especially ask that you publicize within your organization or congregation.
We generally print our own programs, but if you prefer to do your own, we're happy to have you do it as well.
- Check the schedule to see if we already have a concert scheduled. We sometimes do more than one concert in day if time permits.
- Contact us via email at info@gatewayringers.org, or contact our director, at director@gatewayringers.org, in order to determine if we are available on your choice of date and time. Ringer availability is a major factor in determining dates, so we suggest some flexibility in negotiating this. We suggest at least a two-month lead time, but will work with you on shorter notice if our ringers are able to perform. Performance space is also something to be considered as handbells require an appreciable amount of floor space to set up. To see some examples of layouts our group has used, click here.
- Once we have a tentative date and time, and an agreement on financial terms, we will send you our performance agreement for you to review, sign and return to the address on the second page. This document is our way of forming a commitment between your venue and our group, as well as defining the terms for the performance. Note: We cannot consider that a commitment is made until this form is returned.
- Once the form is returned, we will contact you to work out any other details. Please note that unless a free-will offering is collected, payment is due prior to the performance start time. A free-will offering is due after the performance. We also ask permission that we be allowed to sell our CDs in an agreed upon location in your venue. If there is a problem with this, please alert us on the performance agreement.
- We are listed in the Missouri Arts Council Touring Performer's Directory. This means that not only can folks find us more easily, they can also apply for MAC grants to help offset the costs! To view the directory, click the MAC logo or here.
- Our performances are generally limited to certain times of the year:
- End of March through end of May or early June (spring concerts)
- End of September through early November (fall concerts)
- First two or three weekends of December (Christmas concerts)
We hope to ring for you soon!