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Music Promotions Information for Independent Artists and Record Labels

Michael Bell

Bell Time Productions is an independent music production label, and a marketing & promotions outlet for the independent artists and musicians. We have done our research and found very effective ways to promote new artist s music over the internet. As an artist / songwriter / producer I was searching for ways to promote and market my music over the internet. I soon found out how difficult it was to accomplish this task, so I had to put my time in and do my research. I literally contacted thousands of music related websites such as; online music publications, online radio, online music distributors, directories etc only to find out that the faster I would check these music promotional outlets, the faster new ones would be started. It quickly became very obvious to me that promoting music on the internet could easily become a full time job.

It also occurred to me that, if I were to put much time and effort into doing all the work in finding places to submit my music, I could prevent many others from having to do the same thing all over again? Can you imagine having to put in hundreds of internet web searching hours in order to find online outlets to exposure your music and talents? I think you would rather stick to the creating and performing part of your music it would take up too much of your time to do the other!

I created Bell Time Productions to help musicians get back to doing what they love to do most create their music! I am sure you would rather be picking up a guitar, or sitting down at a piano or laying down your favor music track in the studio rather than having to spend 40 hours or more a week promoting your music on the internet.

I think you`ll agree that Bell Time Productions is a service that is much needed in today s ever changing world of online music. Bell Time Productions helps you maximize your time and gets you great results. That`s what we re all about!

Michael Bell

http://www.belltimerecords.com

OBITUARY; Classical piano elevated Umbs` life

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The , Jan 26, 2006 by AMY RABIDEAU SILVERS

In the end, as her body was failing, Henrietta Umbs got to hear the classical music that she had always loved.

It was her own, though she did not recognize it at first.

"Beautiful," she would say. "Beautiful."

"Well, you know that is you playing," family members would gently say.

"And she`d get a look of surprise and then recognition on her face," said granddaughter Betty McManus.

Umbs, once considered one of Milwaukee`s finest pianists, died of natural causes Saturday. She was 98.

She spent much of her adult life living in Shorewood and on Milwaukee`s east side. After the death of her second husband, she lived with a daughter in Fox Point until requiring full-time care last June.

She was born Henrietta Buell in Lanesboro, Minn. While still an infant, her family moved to Lake Geneva. She began learning piano from her mother, Tena Buell, when she was 6, and violin from her father, Ralph Buell. Later, she was excited to study with a distant cousin, Robert Adams Buell, who had studied under Martin Krause, a student of Franz Liszt.

She studied at both Marquette University and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, earning her degree from the conservatory in 1930. The gifted student joined the conservatory faculty, teaching until 1956.

In 1931, she married James Mortonson, a dentist, and later became the mother of two daughters.

Among the young music veteran`s many concerts and recitals, one non-performance stands out, according to her family. Pregnant with her second daughter, she declined a request to play for architect Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in Spring Green.

"I think she was pretty pregnant at the time," her granddaughter said.

She continued playing and performing, including at venues such as the Pabst Theater, to rave reviews. Richard S. Davis of The Milwaukee Journal called her a gifted and thoughtful musician.

"The pianist went about her assignment without fuss or strain and gave it the requisite quality of deep sincerity," Davis wrote in 1944.

"She was a career woman long before it was really acceptable," McManus said, describing her grandmother as something of a feminist before anyone used the word. "She was just a lovely lady, with just an incredible gift and such a kind heart."

Her husband died in 1953, and she moved from Shorewood to Janesville in 1956, giving piano lessons there and playing as a church organist.

"Pianists are always asked to play organ, so she had about six organ lessons and began to play for churches," said her daughter, Lois Kashou.

Romance overseas

In 1962, a chance meeting brought love and a second marriage. She was on a musician`s tour of Europe when she met LeRoy Umbs, an acquaintance from the conservatory in Milwaukee. "We were engaged in Salzburg, we announced it in Munich, and we got married when we got back home in September," he later said.

Their biggest challenge was finding an apartment big enough for two Steinway grand pianos that would "still leave a little room for us to walk around," she said.

The couple also became musical partners on a variety of stages, including the Milwaukee Chamber Symphony Orchestra, performing duets both on two pianos and for four hands on one piano, Kashou said.

A master of Bach

Umbs was well-known for her Bach performances, maintaining that a mastery of Bach was essential to mastering the works of other composers. She also continued teaching and other professional work.

"She played at a Baptist church on Ogden," her daughter said. "Then she would walk over to the First Unitarian Church, where her husband played, and she would sing in the choir.

"She never raised her voice, unless she was singing," Kashou said. "Music was her life."

Umbs was a longtime member and regular performer with groups including the MacDowell Club, the Wisconsin Federation of Music Clubs, Milwaukee`s Civic Music Association and Delta Omicron, the international professional music sorority. In 1988, she joined the Harmony Club. She gave her last performance for the club in 2004, playing her favorite Brahms works at the age of 96.

The year before, the family made a CD of her playing, calling it "Nana at 95."

"She couldn`t even see and it was all from memory," McManus said. "As long as she could play the piano, she still did it, and she did it with such spirit."

"Growing old ain`t for sissies," Umbs once declared.

"It just struck me because I had never heard her use the word ain`t,` " McManus said. "She never lost her sense of humor."

In addition to her daughter and granddaughter, Umbs is survived by daughter Karen Sandvold, stepdaughter Dorothy Benzing, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandson.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Feb. 4 at North Shore Presbyterian Church, 4808 N. Bartlett Ave.

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