Nancy Lutz

Another Butler native is returning to help St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 201 W. Jefferson St., celebrate its 200th anniversary.

The Three Rivers Ringers handbell ensemble will perform a handbell concert at 4 p.m. Sunday at the church’s sanctuary.

The ensemble is under the direction of Nancy Lutz, a Butler native and one of the founders of the group in 2010.

“I was born in Butler and spent all my growing up years here. I graduated from Butler High School in 1959,” said Lutz.

“My father, Robert Brookhart, worked for the Butler Eagle. He was foreman of the commercial printing department,” she said.

Lutz is also director of handbells at Mount Lebanon United Methodist Church, where she leads two adult ensembles and a youth quartet.

She has been deeply involved in the Handbell Musicians of America Guild since 1998 and has served on its board of directors since 1999, recently retiring as its appointed secretary.

“I really have not been doing it that long,” she said.

“I’ve been directing since 1994 and I was a ringer prior to that time.”

The Three Rivers Ringers’ purpose is advancing the art of handbell ringing through educational programming and performance at the highest levels. It was founded by five handbell musicians, including Lutz, from Pittsburgh in 2010.

“We have 15 members at present,” said Lutz. “We rehearse for a minimum of three hours every Sunday.”

“It’s the most complicated instrument to play,” said Lutz of the handbell. “In any selection you have a minimum of 13 people playing the equivalent of a piano keyboard.”

Lutz said a handbell player may have up to 13 bells to play.

“It’s very intricate. You have to audition to get into the group,” Lutz said.

She said the Three Rivers Ringers at St. Mark’s on Sunday will be playing selections drawn from the classical canon including a Grieg orchestral piece, a Brahms piano piece, a Verdi sacred choral piece and a selection from a Russian ballet.

“Our 200th anniversary chairman, Bonnie Neigh, had heard them do a concert at St. John’s Church in Evans City and said we had to get them,” said Karen Krenitsky, the organist at St. Mark’s.

“It’s the first time I’ve gotten to play in Butler,” said Lutz. “This is very exciting for me as a native.”

The Three Rivers Ringers were not the first musical event to mark St. Mark’s bicentennial.

On March 15, Mark Pacoe, a 1992 Butler High School graduate who now serves as director of music for St. Malachi’s Church — The Actors’ Chapel in the heart of New York’s theater district in Times Square, gave an organ recital at St. Mark’s.

Nor will Lutz’s group be the last.

The Circle of Friends Choir is scheduled to give a concert at the church at 7 p.m. May 5.