Lee J. Afdahl is the Director of Music Emeritus of First Presbyterian Church of Rochester, Minnesota. A graduate of Luther College, Decorah, IA, Lee is a church musician with fifty years of experience in leading active programs of choral and handbell ensembles in Michigan and Minnesota.

Lee Afdahl is frequently a conductor and clinician for handbell conferences, choral workshops, and church music conferences internationally. He has conducted festival conferences for the Handbell Musicians of America at the local, area, and national levels, for handbell classes of American Guild of Organists, Fellowship of United Methodists, Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and international handbell events in England, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. 

Mr. Afdahl has served the Handbell Musicians of America as Michigan Chair for Area 5, Chair of Area 7, and is a Past President of the national board of the organization. He represented the organization as a conductor at the International Handbell Symposia in Adelaide, Australia in 1994, Liverpool, UK in 2012 and Jeju, South Korea in 2014.  Lee has taught intermediate and advanced conducting for HMA Seminars, and most recently taught conducting for certification for HMA. 

Lee is an active organ recitalist and published composer and arranger of handbell, instrumental, and choral music with over one hundred compositions and arrangements in print.

Professor Hirotaka Arai graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, majoring in voice. He is currently dedicated to research in handbell music, choral performance, and opera. His journey with handbells began in 1987, when he was captivated by the performance of the Izumi Women's Junior College Handbell Choir, conducted by the late Kazuo Shimoda (former President of the Handbell Ringers of Japan). 

Inspired by the beauty of handbell music, he began studying handbell performance techniques. In 1988, Arai founded the Handbell Choir at Hakuoh University as part of the music education program. In 1992, he led the choir to its first appearance at the International Handbell Symposium in Edmonton, Canada. Since then, he has participated in the symposium 15 times, performing as a representative of Japan at major events including Makuhari Messe (Japan, 1998), Osaka (Japan, 2010), Liverpool (UK, 2012), and Jeju Island (Korea, 2014), receiving enthusiastic applause and standing ovations at each. He has also served in key roles at international symposiums: as massed ringing conductor in Birmingham (UK, 2000) and Vancouver (Canada, 2016), as conductor of the Symposium Choir in Osaka (Japan, 2010), and as conductor of the MIRAI Choir in Hamamatsu (Japan, 2024). In addition, he has led workshops in 2012 and 2014. 

Since 1992, Arai has made 30 performance trips to Hawaii, and in recognition of his long-standing contributions, he has received letters of appreciation from both the Mayor of Honolulu and the Governor of Hawaii.

In 2025 August, he was invited to Hong Kong to lead a three-day seminar. Domestically, Arai serves as a clinician at workshops organized by the Handbell Ringers of Japan. He also conducts annual handbell experience courses in his hometown of Oyama City, helping to establish numerous community-based handbell teams. His contributions include the publication of many handbell arrangements and several CD recordings.

He is currently the Professor Emeritus at Hakuoh University and serves as a Board member of the Handbell Ringers of Japan.