Mitchell Eithun Music

I’m excited to conduct the Handbell Musicians of America Area 3 Piedmont Festival next April!

This weekend I’m an observer at Virtuoso, an advanced handbell event sponsored by the Raleigh Ringers! It’s been great to see old friends. I edited one of the pieces for the event and loaned a few sets of bells. This is the final Virtuoso event with Dr. William Payn 🔔

New music! This piece was commissioned by Twin Cities Bronze. Here are my notes:

This piece is inspired by St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota, called Owámniyomni in the Dakota language, meaning “whirlpool” or “turbulent waters”. For indigenous communities, the falls are sacred gathering site and a place for trade and ritual. The Falls are the only waterfall and natural portage on the Mississippi River and are part of the Bdote, a sacred Dakota landscape whose name means “confluence” or “place where two rivers meet”.

The integrity of the falls was severally damaged by European settlers who, in the 19th century, engineered dams to support the milling industry and interned thousands of indigenous people in nearby military installations. Owámniyomni Okhódayapi or “Friends of the Falls” was founded in 2016 as a Dakota-led initiative to preserve the falls from further industrialization and honor its sacred presence.

“Icefall” seeks to depict seasonal transformations in the falls, highlighting the continued presence of this sacred waterway. My hope is that we can reimagine our relationship with water in light of the Dakota value of Mní Wičóni, or “Water is Life.”

More information: https://www.handbellworld.com/music/MusicPiece.cfm?Piece=20811

New! This arrangement of “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” from the Nutcracker makes use of the upper octaves of handchimes to evoke the sound of the celeste. Written with love for Bell Durham 🩰

More information: https://www.handbellworld.com/music/MusicPiece.cfm?Piece=20849

Today was my last day as the interim handbell director at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh. This has been a wonderful ringing crew and we celebrated Pentecost in style! 🔥

It was an honor to write a piece to celebrate the 50th anniversary of handbells at Olive Chapel Baptist in Apex, NC. In a special concert they premiered my arrangement of “Burning Love” by Elvis 🔥

We had a fabulous conclusion to our Bell Durham season!

Last weekend we pulled off a rarely performed piece for handbell ensemble and choir called "The Bells" by David York. It a 4-movement setting of the poem by Edgar Allen Poe 🔔

It's a big bell day! First a combined concert with Bell Durham and the Choral Society of Durham and then a carillon recital at Duke University Chapel!