Mark Longfield, winner
Area 10 2025 Bell Tree Composition Contest
Congratulations to Mark Longfield and his composition, The Way Back Home.
Mark Longfield is Director of Music at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in North Hollywood, where he conducts the choir and handbell choir, and teaches middle school handbell classes. He has also performed with L.A. Bronze for over a decade.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied guitar and film scoring, Mark is a multi-instrumentalist with a passion for handbells, piano, guitar, and mallet percussion. He enjoys composing and arranging for ensembles of all levels and instrumentation, from beginning groups to advanced choirs and soloists.
In his free time, Mark is a student of the Alexander Technique, an aficionado of classic video games—especially the Legend of Zelda series—and a fan of autumn, Halloween, and all things spooky. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, two children, and their golden retriever, Stitch.
The Way Back Home is a light and frolicky tune that makes your body want to move along with the various rhythms. It incorporates many handbell techniques in the ensemble score and weaves the main tune back and forth between ensemble and bell tree. Fun for all!