McChesney, Kevin
Kevin McChesney graduated with highest honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Theory. A composer and arranger of handbell music, Kevin currently has 300 titles in print and is one of the very few musicians who makes handbells a full-time vocation. He won the National American Guild of English Handbell Ringers and the Area II AGEHR Composition Contest in 1992. He is the handbell editor for Jeffers Handbell Supply and the Ringing World catalog, and was Jeffers’ Composer of the Year for 1993.
Kevin was a church music director in Methodist, Southern Baptist, and Presbyterian churches for 12 years. For 5 years, he was also accompanist and co-director for the vocal music department at Air Academy High School, where he still co-directs a major production each fall season. Kevin directs an auditioned community handbell choir, the Pikes Peak Ringers. He is co-founder of the Solo To Ensemble Project, STEP, president of the Handbell University program, and maintains a devotional website for handbell ministries called Handbells In Service (HIS). He is in demand throughout the handbell world as a workshop clinician and festival conductor.Kevin lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife Tracy and their cats, Belle and Grace Note.
