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Cathy Moklebust (b. 1958) has developed and directed handbell music programs since 1983, and has played bells since childhood. With her dynamic, positive approach and skillful 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 well over 100 published compositions and arrangements to her credit, many of them reaching “bestseller” status. She has been commissioned to write music for many festivals and other events, as well as for numerous individual handbell ensembles, including five for the Raleigh Ringers. Cathy has been the recipient of the Donald E. Allured Composition Award, the 2005 “Composer of the Year” award from Jeffers Handbell Supply, and has won an ASCAP Writer’s Award every year since 2001. In 2007 she was a guest conductor for the National Residential Ringing Week at Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK. Ms. Moklebust began her musical career as a public school instrumental music instructor in South Dakota. She is an active percussionist, and has performed as principal or section percussionist with several professional bands and orchestras throughout the upper Midwest. Cathy has played in and conducted church and community handbell ensembles in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. She has worked for the past 20 years in the music retail and publishing industry, and currently operates a music editing and engraving service with her husband. Cathy earned both her B.A. (Percussion, 1982) and M.Ed. (Teacher Education/Music, 1988) at South Dakota State University, in her hometown of Brookings, SD. Ms. Moklebust and her family reside in rural Eagle Grove, Iowa, on her husband’s 113 year-old family farm.
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