Cathy Moklebust
South Dakota Sub-Area Chair
Cathy Moklebust has developed and directed handbell music programs since 1983, and has played bells since childhood. With her dynamic, positive approach and skilled conducting, she is in national demand as a handbell clinician and festival conductor. As one of today’s most popular handbell music composers, she has written over 400 compositions and arrangements, many of them reaching bestseller status. Her music has been described as “pure joy to ring and listen to, having a uniquely delightful sense of melodic and rhythmic interaction, with elegant form and style.” She has been commissioned to write music for festivals and other events, as well as for many individual handbell ensembles, including nine for the Raleigh Ringers. Cathy’s music has been broadcast on “Today,” “Good Morning, America,” public television, public radio, and SiriusXM satellite radio.
Ms. Moklebust began her musical career as a public school instrumental music instructor in South Dakota. She has performed as principal or section percussionist with several professional and community bands and orchestras throughout the upper Midwest, and teaches classes in percussion for music events. Cathy has played in, conducted, and coached church and community handbell ensembles in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Since 1989, she has worked in the music retail and publishing industry; currently she and her husband David operate a successful music preparation service.
Cathy earned both her B.A. (Music/Percussion, 1982) and M.Ed. (Teacher Education/Music, 1988) at South Dakota State University, in her hometown of Brookings, SD. She was encouraged in composition by her music theory professors – the late Mary Alice Spencer Berger and the late Dr. Paul H. Royer – and studied instrumental conducting extensively with Prof. John F. Colson. Her handbell education began in 1970 with the Towers Handbell Choir of First Lutheran Church in Brookings, under the direction of the late Mrs. Barbara Berntson. She attended her first handbell event as a high school student, when the Towers Handbell Choir participated in the 1975 AGEHR National Handbell Festival in Logan, UT, under the director of Donald Allured. Cathy and her husband reside in Brookings, SD. They have 4 grown children and 4 grandchildren.
Brookings, South Dakota