Jacob Malta* (1994) has devoted his career to the design and production of handbells. He was the handbell design engineer for Schulmerich Carillons from 1962 to 1972. He founded Malmark, Inc. in 1974 where he has designed and produced handbells in bronze through a nine octave range. In 1982, he introduced the first American handchime under the name of Choirchime © Instrument and expanded the range from C2 to C8. He has also designed and produced the first acceptable aluminum bass handbells for lower 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th octaves. He says after 35 years of hands-on design and tuning of handbells, the old adage of “The more I learn, the less I know” accurately describes his knowledge of handbells. He lists his greatest gratification as, “participating and contributing towards achieving the goal of the AGEHR in “Uniting people through a musical art.” In Memory of Jake Malta
