Meet Our Directors
Jana Larson, Artistic Director, 2023-current

Jana Larson is the Handbell Director at Fox Point Lutheran Church. She is a graduate of St Olaf College where she played and studied handbells with Jill Mahr. She also sang in the St Olaf Choir and studied conducting with Anton Armstrong. She earned her Master of Church Music degree with a handbell emphasis from Concordia University Wisconsin where she studied with John Behnke. She was the interim conductor of the Alleluia Ringers at CUW for the 2015-16 school year, and in the summer of 2021, she was an adjunct professor of music at CUW, teaching the Handbell Methods and Materials class for the graduate church music program. She has taught technique classes at area conferences and workshops throughout her community. She played with the Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble from 2011-2021. For the past two seasons she has sung with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus. After that brief hiatus, she is ready to come back to bells!
Dr. John Behnke, Founding Director & Director Emeritus, 2004-2019

Dr. John Behnke enjoys composing and arranging having over 450+ handbell, choral, and organ compositions in print with nineteen different publishers in the United States, Germany, and Taiwan. A complete works listing can be found online at www.johnbehnke.com.
He is Emeritus Professor of Music of Concordia University, in Mequon, Wisconsin where for 29 years he taught organ, church music courses, and directed The Alleluia Ringers, Concordia’s touring handbell choir.
He was the organist and choir director at Historic Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee, from 1990 until 2019, and the director of the Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble and Music Editor of AGEHR Publishing – Handbell Musicians of America from 2003 until 2019.
He was recently awarded the Honorary Life Membership (2020) by the Handbell Musicians of America.
He is Emeritus Professor of Music of Concordia University, in Mequon, Wisconsin where for 29 years he taught organ, church music courses, and directed The Alleluia Ringers, Concordia’s touring handbell choir.
He was the organist and choir director at Historic Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee, from 1990 until 2019, and the director of the Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble and Music Editor of AGEHR Publishing – Handbell Musicians of America from 2003 until 2019.
He was recently awarded the Honorary Life Membership (2020) by the Handbell Musicians of America.