Current Ringers

Cheryl (Baker) Woldseth - cheryl@sonos.org

Cheryl joined Sonos in 2003 for the Winter and Spring touring seasons. Past handbell accomplishments include directorship of the Bay Bells Ensemble and American Guild of English Handbell Ringers board membership. Cheryl is an accomplished conductor, performer, clinician, composer, and educator, and a graduate of Westminster Choir College. She sings and plays many instruments, directs the Nevada County Concert Band, teaches school music programs, performs with the local symphonies, and teaches privately. Cheryl lives in Grass Valley, CA, and also owns the music publishing company Bronze:FX.

Erin Downey - erin@sonos.org

Erin is a graduate of Arizona State University where she earned a BA in Music and a Minor in Business. She began ringing handbells at the age of six and has performed and been a faculty member of many state, area and national handbell events including National Director's Seminars and the 1996 International Handbell Symposium. Erin earns her living as a professional musician and piano teacher and moved to the bay area in 2000 to become a member of Sonos.

Kathie Fink-Hein - kfink@sonos.org

Kathie has been ringing handbells for over 40 years, touring the United States with her family, known as the Fink Family Handbell Ringers when she was a teenager. Kathie and others now teach the solo ringing technique developed by her family at national handbell festivals. Kathie is a founding ringer of Sonos. She has returned from retirement to ring with Sonos this season. Kathie works full time as a juvenile court officer for Contra Costa County. She lives in Antioch with her son Jeremy, her daughter Alexis, and two cats.

Rick Hoffmeister - rick@sonos.org

Rick brings 27 years of percussion experience to Sonos, starting in the third grade after he convinced his parents (over their obvious objections) to let him play drums. He heard handbells for the first time in '90 and was immediately hooked, and three years later he joined the Los Angeles-based group Pacific Bells. Soon after returning from his honeymoon in September of '95, Rick found himself auditioning for Sonos and commuting to Oakland on weekends until a permanent move in early 1996. Rick took two years away from Sonos to spend more time with his family but found himself longing to return to the tables to ring with Sonos once again.  In his spare time, Rick designs and tests satellites.

Ruben Mendoza - ruben@sonos.org

Ruben Mendoza began ringing handbells over 25 years ago at St. Genevieve Church in Los Angeles. Ruben has been a member of several community/professional handbell ensembles including Campanile, Velocity and Canto Bello. He currently directs a handbell choir at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church and also performs as a handbell soloist whenever possible. Over the years Ruben has performed, taught and attended several AGEHR, Area XII and Handbell Exploration conferences. He also has a background in voice, piano, percussion and woodwind instruments. Ruben enjoys traveling, touring and being on stage.

Adam Miller - adam@sonos.org

Adam was born and raised in a musical family. He started singing in church choir and playing piano at age 5. At age 8, he started playing handbells in church. In February 1992, Adam auditioned & became a member of the Golden Gate Boys Choir where he sang, learned music theory and rang handbells. Through this group, he was able to tour around the world, sing in the SF opera, star in a commercial and even be the lead role in Amahl and the Night Visitors. After leaving the boys choir in 1996, Adam continued music in high school and in the summer of 1997, attended the 8th Annual International Handbell Symposium in Japan. At age 18, Adam began to direct his own handbell choir at First Presbyterian Church of Newark. Adam still actively directs bells, takes private voice lessons and sings in choirs when he finds the time. During the day, Adam works as an underwriter for a mortgage company in San Ramon. Adam auditioned & joined Sonos in January 2004.

Taiko Otsubo - taiko@sonos.org

A pupil of the late Katsumi Kodama, Japan's famed handbell composer and conductor, Taiko founded the Chamber Ringing Soloists in 1992. She is noted for her deeply musical performances in the group's appearances on various Japanese TV programs and tours. They collaborated in Vienna with members of the Vienna Philharmonic. Two CDs containing transcriptions of Piazzola and Bach have been released on Toshiba-EMI. She founded a new ensemble, Kiriku, in 2003 that is currently performing in Japan.

Melissa Rossi - melissa@sonos.org

Melissa's musical training began at an early age. During her childhood, she was an accomplished pianist. In addition, by high school, she was actively involved in a small choral ensemble that toured throughout the world. She was first introducted to handbells in the 6th grade, under the direction of David Ruder. She was one of the youngest original members of the Marching Handbell Choir that lead off the 1988 Tournament of Roses Parade. After returning from her college studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, she joined up with Sonos, and is now in her 7th year. She currently enjoys working at Stanford Children's Hospital as a newborn nurse.

Michele Sharik - michele@sonos.org

Michèle moved from Cleveland, Ohio, to the San Francisco Bay Area in January of 2002 to join Sonos. In addition to ringing with Sonos, she is a member of the Sonos Quartet, teaches private handbell lessons and often appears as clinician at Bay Area handbell events. She serves as Director of Handbells for two Bay Area churches. An avid handbell soloist, she has competed in two national Solo/Ensemble events, and has concertized across the United States as well as in Canada and the UK. She majored in Composition and minored in Flute Performance at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. A California Girl at heart, she plans to enjoy the beaches and mountains as much as possible with her husband, Brian.

Jason Tiller - jason@sonos.org

From a musical family, Jason played piano, french horn, cello, and flute before setting his sights on handbells 11 years ago. His ringing career began with the Pacific Bells under the direction of Dr. Ardis Freeman, and he is grateful to have worked with both her and James Meredith. In 1994, Jason founded the Handbell-L while working as a contractor to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Currently, his day job is as a software engineer in the Silicon Valley. Jason married Diane in 1995, and their first child was a 4-octave set of Malmark handbells. It has brought them much joy.

Jukka-Pekka Vainio - jpvainio@sonos.org

A native of Finland, Jukka won his first job as a cellist in a professional orchestra when he was 16. After two years at Helsinki Conservatory, he shifted his focus to a graduate degree in math and computer science. Throughout his studies, Jukka continued to perform as a freelance cellist and trombonist. After completing his degree in 1995, Jukka and his wife, Melissa, moved to Cape Cod, MA, where they had met in 1982 while he was an exchange student. Jukka enjoyed teaching math at his old high school, playing in the Cape Symphony, freelancing with his cello, and directing a 45-piece community orchestra until Melissa won her Sonos audition in 1998 and they moved to the West Coast. Two years later he joined her in Sonos. Jukka works as a system administrator for Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, and spends several hours a week on the badminton courts at UC Berkeley.

Melissa Vainio - melissav@sonos.org

Melissa began ringing handbells as a freshman in high school. She earned her undergraduate degree in English from Mount Holyoke College, in Massachusetts, then went on to earn a Master of Music degree in horn performance from Sibelius Academy in Finland. While in Finland, Melissa was a member of that country's first handbell choir (coincidentally called Sonus). Upon returning to Massachusetts in 1995, Melissa directed handbell choirs, taught horn lessons, performed as a handbell soloist and as a member of a brass quintet, and worked for the Cape & Islands Chamber Music Festival. She gave all this up to move to the Bay Area in 1998 to ring with Sonos. Melissa is currently working in the development office at an independent school in El Cerrito.

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