Carlene Ruesenberg (handbell choir) has been playing handbells since 2004, and directing and teaching since 2011. She is currently the director of the Memorial Bell Choir at South Congregational Church in Concord, NH. Prior to that, she was the director of the Senior and Junior Handbell Choirs at the Lee Church Congregational. As a ringer, she has been a member of the Merrimack Valley Ringers in Chelmsford, MA since 2014. Before joining MVR, she spent six years as a founding member of the Granite State Ringers. She served as Chair of Area 1 of Handbell Musicians of America, and organized its biennial Festival Conference in 2022. She was selected to ring in the All Stars Choir at the HMA National Seminar in 2017 and 2021, and

Matt Alling (percussion) is a drum instructor with more than 30 years of teaching, playing and touring through the northeast and Eastern sword. His background and experience include rock, jazz, classical, funk, punk, reggae, musical theater, opera, concert and marching bands, drum and bugle corps, pipe bands, fife and drum corps. Matt has previously taught at Virtuoso Music School in Nashua, School of Rock in Madison CT, drum lines at Branford High School in CT, Jonathan Law High School in CT, and Hamden High School in CT. Additionally, he is the curator for the drum collection at the Company of Fifers and Drummers Museum in Ivoryton, CT.

Lindsey Schust (percussion and composition) graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Music from Brandeis University and an M.A. in Music Composition from Tufts University. Since then she has studied with African and Afro-Caribbean master drummers from Mali, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, Ghana, Trinidad, Haiti, and Cuba, as well as composition with award-winning composers David Rakowski, Yehudi Wyner, and John McDonald. In 2006 Lindsey won the Global Rhythm songwriting competition for her Afro-Cuban song “Café Con Leche” and in 2009 was nominated for a Just Plain Folks Independent Music Award for Best Caribbean Song for her piece “Mama Lele.”

Grace Schust (Songweavers drumming ensemble, percussion) earned her B.F.A. summa cum laude from Colby Sawyer College and has since studied with Babatunde Olatunji, Abdoul Doumbia, Momady Kaita, Mohamed Kalifa Kamera, Papus Diabate, and Issa Coulibaly. She is the director and founder of Arts Bridge the World, which leads percussion workshops for team-building in the workplace and building self-esteem for at-risk children. Grace has performed with Voices of the Heart, Concord Chorale, Dartmouth World Music Percussion Ensemble, Portsmouth Percussive Arts Festival, Brandeis University, Harvard University, and Boston University. She has held faculty positions at Proctor Academy, Colby-Sawyer College, Brandeis University, and Plymouth State University, and has had roles with the Spaulding Youth Center, NH Association for the Blind, VSA Arts, Lutheran Social Service, and corporate workshops.