Pine Tree Academy students in concert Saturday dedicate time and talent to their music.

Some of the Pine Tree Academy Bell Ringers who will perform Saturday at the First Parish Church Congregational in Freeport have been on world tours. Others will be performing in public for the first time.

But there is one constant: Music teacher Doris Krueger, who has been teaching English handbells at the private Freeport school for 40 years. Krueger will have the 11 “ringers,” as they are called, ready for their performance Feb. 28, at 3 p.m., as part of FebFest, a series of arts-related events taking place throughout the month.

“Five students have graduated, and we have brand-new bell-ringers,” Krueger said.

Seniors such as Allison Verrill provide leadership for the younger ringers.

Verrill, from Auburn, who has been on two world tours with the group, remembers what it was like when she was an eighth-grader. Her older brother, Nathan, was in the advanced group at the time. Now, Verrill’s younger brother Griffin is a bell ringer.

“You learn that everyone is there to help each other,” Verrill said. “Just the idea of teamwork is really awesome. This will be the first concert for some of them. We filled slots as they were ready to come into the group. There’s a beginner’s group, and intermediate group, then the advanced group. I think that everybody is pretty forgiving because we’ve already been there. We’re pretty supportive.”

Verrill said she has moved to different positions during her progression with the bell ringers.

“I’ve been with different bell ringers,” she said. “We have two to a table.”

She and the others have learned to play four bells at a time, two in each hand.

“That was a challenge in itself,” Verrill said. “Nobody gets into the advanced group without being in the beginner and intermediate group. You sort of ease into it.”

Verrill is one of three seniors in this year’s Pine Tree Academy Bell Ringers advanced group.

“It’s a skill that not many people have,” she said. “You learn how to do multi-tasking because you do one thing with one hand and one thing with the other. There’s 10 other people playing, but it still sounds just like one person.”

Handbell music can be any genre, Krueger said.

“Music we have played in the past includes handbell repertoire, music composed for English handbells; spirituals; hymn arrangements; traditional marches (such as Sousa); classical music that would include baroque, classical, romantic, modern (such as Gershwin and big band); and Christmas, sacred and secular.”

Six of the 2015 version of the Pine Tree Academy musicians have played their bells around the world, most recently in Scandinavia and Germany last summer. They’re also well-rounded, as several of them play piano and other instruments in the school band.

“They’re accomplished,” said Elizabeth Guffey, artistic director of Freeport Players. “We’re glad to have a very different kind of music, and afternoon music, which is kind of nice.”

The bell ringers wear gloves, because perspiration from their hands would damage the expensive bronze bells. They play five octaves of handbells (61 bells) and five octaves of choir chimes (also 61 bells).

Krueger, an organist and chairwoman of the Brunswick Adventist Church Music Committee, as well as minister of music at Falmouth Congregational Church, has the students trained in a complex discipline of musical exercises. There are four-bell techniques. Some of the bells are big and heavy, weighing as much as 11 pounds. Some are tiny. And then there are the chimes – different instruments entirely.

“People say it’s a heavenly sound,” Krueger said. “Precision is needed to play strongly or softly. Handbells takes dexterity and teamwork, yet you’re individually on your own. You only do one note at a time.”

Krueger teaches music in all grades at the school, which includes pre-kindergarten all the way up through high school. Pine Tree Academy is a Seventh-day Adventist institution, but accepts students from the general population. There are about 135 students in the school this year.

Back in 1975, the year after she began teaching at Pine Tree Academy, Krueger got her introduction to handbells. It was a small concert in Brunswick. Later that year, she heard a bigger, better ensemble perform.

“I just said, ‘Pine Tree Academy has to have this,’” she recalled. “It’s teamwork, and it’s challenging. It’s visually beautiful, too.”

Before the year was over, the school had its first handbell group.

“We had just three octaves to begin with,” Krueger said.

Only seven years later, in 1982, the Pine Tree Academy Bell Ringers made their first overseas tour, to Bermuda.

Now, the bell ringers tour every few years, when they can raise the money. It’s not cheap, and Kruger makes sure she has an “advanced group” to tour with. Last year, it was a whirlwind tour of Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, with 23 concerts in three weeks.

“These kids are charged when they go,” Krueger said. “They give a very, very wholesome impression of American youth.”

They play in large halls or at assisted-living facilities. The group makes do, in terms of accommodations.

“We either stay overnight with families, or we stay overnight on mattresses, in schools or churches,” Krueger said. “This is better. We get to meet the people.”

Wherever they go, the bell ringers carry their instruments in heavy cases. They practice for up to two hours a week.

“The kids,” Krueger said, “they are amazing.”

The 11 members of the Pine Tree Academy Bell Ringers, five of whom have graduated from the school, did a three-week tour of Scandanavia and Germany last summer. In front, from left, are Lauren Krueger, granddaughter of music teacher Doris Krueger, Alanna Asgeirsson and Emily Cancel. In back are Beckie McGuire, Allison Verrill, Haley Johnson, Bradley Snow, Blad Krivoruk, Griffin Verrill, Amy Pekar and Micayla Hill. Courtesy photoDoris Krueger, music teacher at Pine Tree Academy in Freeport, gives a handbell demonstration in the school’s music room. Staff photo by Larry Grard