John Pfeiffer

(Nashville, TN) President John Pfeiffer is the vice president of technology and chief information officer at Corrections Corporation of America in Nashville. He has held technology leadership positions with several companies, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and is a veteran Navy surface warfare officer. He holds an MBA from Belmont University and a BS from Vanderbilt University, both in Nashville. John started ringing in fourth grade under the directorships of Martha Lynn and Felix Thompson at St. James United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, and remained active in that program throughout high school. While at Vanderbilt, and again after his military service, John rang with the Joy Ringers at West End United Methodist Church under the direction of Don Marler. He also instituted a youth bell program at West End, which he led for eight years, conducting choirs with participation of over 100 youth. John is the co-founder and principal conductor of the Music City Bronze, a community handbell ensemble in Nashville and has served on boards of directors for non-profit organizations.

 

Lee Afdahl

(Rochester, MN) Lee J. Afdahl is the Director of Music and Organist of First Presbyterian Church of Rochester, Minnesota, a position he has held since 1991. A graduate of Luther College, Decorah, IA, Lee is a church musician with over thirty-five years of experience in leading active programs of choral and handbell ensembles in Michigan and Minnesota. Currently he and his music associate, Jennifer Taylor, are responsible for leading four vocal and four handbell choirs, a choir school program, an elementary instrumental program, a church orchestra, and he advises the church’s annual concert series.

Lee Afdahl is frequently a conductor and clinician for handbell conferences, choral workshops, and church music conferences internationally. He has conducted AGEHR at the local, area, and national levels, for handbell classes of American Guild of Organists events (including 2008 in Minneapolis), and international handbell events in England and Australia. In 2006 through 2008, Mr. Afdahl conducted handbell festival conferences in Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota (Area VII Festival Conference), Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas (Area IX Festival Conference), Vermont, and Virginia. Mr. Afdahl has served the AGEHR as Michigan Chair for Area V, and Chair of Area VII. During his tenure, he attended national board meetings representing Area VII, and under his leadership Area VII began a policy of encouraging younger conductors to have a turn at conducting at massed ringing events. Lee is an active organ recitalist and published composer and arranger of handbell and choral music with over fifty compositions and arrangements in print. His arrangement of the tune ‘Jerusalem’ entitled “O Day of Peace” was rung at the 2006 International Handbell Symposium in Australia.

 

Reiff Lorenz

(Dayton, OH) is the president of the Lorenz Corporation, a publisher of printed music for churches, schools, choirs, handbell choirs, and instrumentalists. The Lorenz Corporation is in its fifth generation of family ownership and is the world's largest distributor of handbell music. Reiff has served AGEHR through the years as an advisor to the board of directors, the executive director, and the music editor. Reiff is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in mathematics and the Harvard Business School program for owner-president-managers. He serves on the Church Music Publisher Association's executive committee as the head of the Technology Task Force and on the board of CityFolk, a non-profit organization promoting folk, ethnic, and traditional performance arts. Reiff and his wife, Melissa, live in Dayton, Ohio.

 

 

J. Michael McCrary

(Tulsa, OK) is a Certified Public Accountant who holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in accounting and is an applied assistant professor in the School of Accounting at the University of Tulsa. Prior to his university appointment in 1996, Mike worked for a large national public accounting firm as an auditor for over 13 years. Then for eight years, he had his own practice as a business consultant and corporate trainer. His public accounting experience included primarily the banking, not-for-profit, and small business areas. In addition to his career in business, Mike has also served churches for over 30 years both as organist and handbell choir director. His community activities include service as treasurer for six different not-for-profit organizations, including AGEHR Area IX and the Oklahoma Sinfonia orchestra. Mike has also served as dean of the American Guild of Organists Tulsa Chapter.

 

 

Philip Roberts

(Chicago, IL) Philip L. Roberts is a 27-year member of AGEHR and lives near Chicago. He has 30 years of experience conducting handbell choirs of all ages in several Protestant traditions and also directs two community handbell ensembles. After a 20-year engineering career, Phil decided to fully pursue his passion—music—and returned to school fulltime earning a music degree. In December 1995 he was invited to direct handbell concerts for Hanukkah and Christmas festivities in Israel.

As the first handbell editor for GIA Publications, Inc., Phil has been the driving force in that company’s success publishing handbell music. He leads choral and handbell reading sessions nationally and is GIA’s handbell clinician giving him access to many handbell enthusiasts who are not AGEHR members. He has over 20 published handbell works with six different publishers. Phil is married with one grandchild, two grown stepchildren, and a son in college.

 

William L. Waggener

(Claremont, CA) William L. Waggener has served on the music staff of the Claremont United Church of Christ since 1973. He and his wife, Lee, current past chair of Area XII, are responsible for the handbell program, which consists of two children's groups, an intergenerational choir with three sets of bells and 27 ringers, and a group of students from the Claremont Colleges. Since 1976, Bill has served on the Area XII board in a number of positions including treasurer (twice), editor of The Twelfth Tone  newsletter (for the third time), and registrar for the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Ringers' Conferences. He has taught workshops at international, national, area, and local events and has conducted events in Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. In the last three years, he has been conductor for 16 handbell events in Area XII alone. He holds a BA and MA in music and an MS in biology and a PhD in physiology, and recently retired as professor of biological sciences at Mt. San Antonio College after serving as department chairman.

 

Stephanie Wiltse

(Grand Rapids, MI) Stephanie Wiltse has been ringing since 1983 and directing handbells since 1992. In 1995, Stephanie was one of the founders of the community group Embellish, and became Music Director of the group in 1999. In addition to Embellish, she currently directs adult handbell groups at LaGrave CRC and Trinity UMC, and student handbell ensembles at Aquinas College and Calvin College in Grand Rapids.

Stephanie’s introduction to AGEHR was through participation as a ringer in festivals in Plymouth, Kalamazoo, Kent State, and Greencastle. She has chaired the Grand Rapids District of the AGEHR, organizing local handbell events and providing networking, leadership, and advice for local handbell directors over the years. She served on the committee for Pinnacle 2002 (Orlando) and 2004 (Dallas), chairing Dream Team auditions for both events. She is also a member of a community-professional advisory team appointed by AGEHR Executive Director Jenny Cauhorn in 2007.

Stephanie has served on several strategic planning, worship, and search committees at her church and has been a lay member of the United Methodist Annual Conference for the past 10 years. She has served as secretary of the Grand Rapids Bach Festival Board since its inception in 1996. Since 2002, she has been secretary of the St. Cecilia Music Center Artistic Advisory Committee, which chooses the performing artists for the yearly jazz, classical, and Great Artist series at St. Cecilia.