Our Ringers
Director - Mary Ames
Mary was born and raised in Puyallup, Washington. In 1985, she opened her first piano studio in Gwinn, Michigan. Over the next 20 years, Mary had the pleasure of teaching piano to children and adults in several states around the country. In 2005, she and her family settled in Kaysville, Utah where she set up her piano studio and continued to teach for the next 15 years.
In addition to teaching piano, she taught elementary school music to grades K-6, directed several school and church vocal choirs, and has been in high demand as a choir and solo/ensemble accompanist. She joined the Bells of Joyful Sound as a ringer in 2010 and became the director in January 2011. In 2023, after 35 years of teaching piano, Mary retired and closed her piano studio. She has been involved with Handbell Musicians of America, Area 11 since January of 2012, serving in multiple positions on the board. She continues to be a mentor and focuses on educating and helping new ringers and directors in the Area. She has 5 married children and 9 grandchildren.
Our Ringers
Erin
Erin was born and raised in Great Falls, Montana, and moved to West Jordan with her family in 2001. She was home schooled through grade school, enrolled in Christian Liberty Academy’s distance education program, and graduated with her high school diploma in 2004. She went on to study music at SLCC, graduating with honors in 2008, just after joining the Bells of Joyful Sound in 2007. Besides playing handbells, she sings, plays guitar, and dabbles with various other instruments. She’s led several praise and worship bands and sung in various choirs, but ringing bells has been her priority and passion for several years. She also enjoys reading, watching movies, playing video games, and doing anything crafty, which all blend perfectly with her job at the County Library.
Krissy
Krissy grew up in Herriman, Utah, where she was introduced to handbells by her older sister. She started playing bells at Herriman High in 2011 during her junior year. After graduating in 2013, she began playing with the Bells of Joyful Sound. She hopes to become an author someday. She enjoys writing, reading, playing video games, and playing the bells. She works at Walmart in Riverton, even though she lives in Holladay with a roommate. Her mother’s side of the family is very musically gifted; her mother was a singer and a pianist. However, Krissy went beyond singing and attempting to play the piano to ringing handbells. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting while watching Netflix to unwind.
Andrew
Andrew was born in Goa, India but after 5 months, he decided he didn’t like the food and promptly moved to Sandy, Utah. Okay, he was adopted and moved to Utah where he grew up. His Mom made him take piano lessons when he was in 3rd grade. He then took up percussion in 7th grade and started playing handbells after high school at Hilltop United Methodist Church and after several years, became the director and held that position for 7 years. He also played percussion at the University of Utah. In 2013, he joined the Bells of Joyful Sound and got to ring again. He works full time as a Paramedic and is involved with Boy Scouts of America. He likes to play softball. When not working, he likes to spend time in mountains, hiking and camping. He currently resides in Herriman, where he lives with his dog, Austin, a German shepherd that’s NOT spoiled at all.
Ann
Ann, who grew up in Sandy, Utah, started playing bells at Jordan High. She fell in love with bells there, and played with the Westminster Bell Choir in Logan for 3 years, and has played with the Bells of Joyful Sound since 2009. She also loves to play the piano, sing, and play the organ. Ann teaches special needs students at an elementary school. Ann likes to makes cards with stamps, read, crochet, and travel with her family.
Holly
Holly is a passionate musician and a new ringer with the “Bells of Joyful Sound” group. She began her musical journey as a toddler, learning piano and organ from her grandmother, Florence Ruth Summers Kofford. Over the years, Holly explored various instruments, including violin, saxophone, bass clarinet, and primarily clarinet. Holly played handbells at Woods Cross High School and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Deaf Studies with a minor in music from Utah Valley University (UVU). Outside of music, she works in Human Resources and enjoys spending quality time with her family.
Brianna
Brianna grew up in Lacey, Washington. She began playing the piano at the age of 5, and has also played the viola and organ. Brianna has her own piano studio and has taught for over 10 years. She loves teaching students of all ages. In 2020, Brianna decided to go back to school and learn computer programming. She and her husband love to play pickleball and board games (games like Kingdom Builder, Exit: The Game, and Clank!). She began ringing bells with the Bells of Joyful Sound in 2014 and has been hooked ever since.
Laura
Laura grew up in Millcreek, Utah. Music has always been a part of her life since she began piano lessons at age 6. She also plays flute and piccolo and was a member of the University of Utah marching and pep bands. She also loves singing, dancing, and dabbling with various instruments. Being in a handbell choir can be checked off her bucket list and she has been playing handbells since 2011. She joined the Bells of Joyful Sound in 2019. Laura has a degree from Western Governors University in Special Education and uses it to teach kindergarten. Laura delights in anything crafty, listening to many genres of music, and hanging out with family watching movies. She also enjoys reading and trying new things.
Vanessa
Vanessa was born in South Jordan. She went to Bingham high school where she first joined a bell choir. After high school she wanted to continue playing bells and joined the Wesley Bell Ringers. She took a hiatus from bells to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tacoma, Washington. Now she is back home and is ready to play the bells again. She loves animals and works full time as a dog groomer.
Miriam
Miriam comes from a family of musicians and has experience in playing piano, flute, and recorder, as well as singing. She got her first taste of playing handbells in high school, where she quickly determined that a handbell was the best kind of instrument. Miriam was in Bingham High School’s bell choir for her entire high school experience, and she missed it when she left for college. Now that she has graduated with her degree in software engineering, becoming the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree, she is happy to once again be part of a bell choir and make beautiful music.
Joell
Joell grew up in Sandy, Utah. She started music in fourth grade where she learned to play the violin. She discovered handbells when her church started a bell choir. She played there for 20 years before joining Bells of Joyful Sound in 2020. Joell has been an Elementary School Educator since 1994 and is currently a technology specialist at two schools. Besides music and teaching, Joell enjoys traveling and often combines her love of travel with handbells. She has attended several handbell conferences, festivals, and seminars in places such as St. Louis, Missouri, Phoenix, Arizona, and Anaheim, California with Disneyland being her favorite place to play handbells! She also enjoys reading and snuggling with her cat.
Curtis
Curtis was born and raised in Utah, and has lived here all his life (aside from a two-year mission in Venezuela), currently residing in Lehi with his wife and five kids. He graduated from BYU with a degree in broadcast journalism and worked in TV news for a few years before moving to a career in software engineering. He enjoys making music, especially through singing and playing guitar. He got into handbells when his daughter Melia joined BOJS in 2023. He also enjoys movies, reading, and curating memory games on his concentration game website, Match The Memory.
Carl
Carl was born in San Luis Obispo California but raised mostly in Gainesvilles Florida. His passion for music began in his high school general music class where we discovered an affinity to music composition. After high school, he left Florida to study at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah with hopes of becoming a film composer. With 15 credits left until graduating as a music composition major, Carl began working as the BYU Welsh Choir Conductor where he discovered his greater passion for teaching music. So with only a year left until graduation, he switched majors to Music Education. He later received his Masters from BYU in Music Education with a special emphasis in sight singing. He still uses his composition background in his teaching.
Carl currently resides in Lehi, Utah with his wife and three rambunctious children (two twin boys and a girl). He currently teaches 6 choirs, a bell choir, and music appreciation at Willowcreek Middle School in Lehi. In his spare time, he loves composing music, playing boardgames and video games, camping, hiking, sewing, crocheting, sketching, and other artsy crafts.
Melia
Melia grew up in American Fork and Lehi, Utah. She started playing in the Willowcreek Handbell Choir in 9th grade, and started at BOJS right after that year. Still a little bit of a beginner, she hopes to play train more in the choir and play as long as possible. Melia does college-level classes and will graduate High School with an Associates degree, then move on to college for computer science and game development. In her eyes, videogames are an art form just like any other, and she wants to be a part of it. She also cares about politics and wants to make a difference in her community.
