Trolleys, Parades and Candlelight Dinners Ring of Fire Ignites the Inauguration

By RICHARD DOWER

Ring of Fire, a handbell choir based in Hillsboro, Oregon, and composed of academy-aged youth, traveled to the nation�fs capitol to play for three official events during the 55th presidential inauguration on Thursday, January 20, 2005. Their second inaugural trip�\Ring of Fire played for the first inauguration of George W. Bush�\Ring of Fire was the only organization to represent the states of Oregon and Washington at the inauguration. Full Story

Ring of Fire Handbell Choir to perform with the Boston Pops in the yearly televised Holiday Pops Concert from Symphony Hall

By RICHARD DOWER

On Monday, Dec. 8, the Ring of Fire handbell choir from Tualatin Valley Junior Academy, Hillsboro, Ore., will board a plane to head east to play in the performance of a lifetime, the televised Holiday Pops Concert with the world famous Boston Pops! Ring of Fire, with their director Jason Wells, will perform three concerts with the Boston Pops, one on Dec.10 and two on Dec. 11. Full Story

Journey to Excellence Ring of Fire

By RICHARD DOWER

It is 6:59 p.m. and the sanctuary of the First Church of God in Vancouver, Washington, is buzzing as people wait to hear the Tualatin Valley Junior Academy?s (TVJA) bell choir, Ring of Fire. After a prayer and brief introduction, thirteen teenagers march in at 7:00 p.m. to take their places behind tables weighted with 61 bronze bells. Their director, Jason Wells, assumes his position and, with a blur of motion and the blended sounds of Laudation, another leg in their journey to excellence begins. Full Story

Jason Wells

By RICHARD DOWER

Reportedly there are more than 300,000 handbell choirs in the United States. What kind of person can transform 13 teenagers into the benchmark of the handbell world? Meet Jason Wells. Full Story

Ring of Fire Featured Young Musicians

Ring of Fire is a unique ensemble comprised entirely of handbell players -- 13 young musicians who play 61 handbells! The members hail from Tualatin Valley Junior Academy in Hillsboro, OR. The ensemble originated five years ago and was the brainchild of director Jason Wells. "It was my dream to come up with a team activity for kids that could take them all around the world, and that would provide a bonding experience where they could fall in love with music," he says. Full Story

Playing With a Ring of Fire

By BILL KNOTT

IT WAS A CLASSIC AMERICAN MOMENT. Minutes before the sleek black limousine carrying President Bill Clinton and President-elect George W. Bush to the inauguration ceremony rolled past Pennsylvania Avenue's Freedom Plaza, an angry chorus of 4,000 protestors waved placards and screamed for a dozen different causes. Police in riot gear struggled to keep the protestors from surging into the street as the passions stoked by a bitter election controversy and the day's miserable weather boiled over. The "peaceful transition of power" so celebrated in the mainstream media seemed uncertain amid chaotic expressions of First Amendment rights.

Just then, from an island in the angry crowd, 13 fresh-faced American teenagers began, in their own way, to let freedom ring. Up from the full-toned English handbells they were playing came the familiar lilting strains of "America the Beautiful," piercing the angry cacophony behind them with a golden hymn to community and promise. Determined to be heard above the din, the teenagers played with musical abandon, belting out their faith in an America that was difficult to see that day, where good is crowned with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea. Full Story

Excellence—On His Own Time

By BILL KNOTT

Ring of Fire director Jason Wells has taken his teenage bell choir to national prominence while carrying a full load of regular academic classes at Tualatin Valley Junior Academy. Though nothing is ever quite "extracurricular" for the 30-year-old Walla Walla College graduate, his everyday teaching load includes classes in ninth- and tenth-grade English, tenth-grade Bible, photography, a publications class—and the school yearbook.

"He wasn't hired to do Ring of Fire," says his wife, Heather, a nurse in a Portland-area hospital. "This is something he just wants to do. When he chooses the one thing that he wants to focus on and go for, he takes it where no else would take it, because of his intensity." Full Story

Teens Ring Bells For Bush

By SUSAN G HAUSER

By Portland standards, there was a media frenzy on the concourse. Reporters from four television and two radio stations focused their cameras and mikes on the 13 members of the Ring of Fire hand-bell choir, instant Oregon celebrities after being named the only musical group in the Pacific Northwest invited to perform at the inauguration of George W. Bush. More...

Bell Choir On Fire

By JANIE NAFSINGER

This blazing young music group from Tualatin Valley Junior Academy is bound for the nation's capital to perform at the presidential inaugural festivities. More...

Hillsboro Froup 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.? Full Story