Pictured (from left to right): Paul Fadoul MUS '00, Alex Milsom '03, Laura Horak '03, Roy Lee '01, Claire Shorenstein '03, Rena Okino '00, Julianne Parolisi '02, Mike Gelfand '01, Sarah Donaldson '01, Aruni Jayatilleke '01, Suzanne Bratt '03, Ellice Wong '00, Connie Tse '02, Mike Horn '02, Cara Marr '00, Frecky Lewis '98 MED '02, Julian Revie '02
Join the Guild alumni mailing list to find old friends and keep updated!
Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs Concert & Alumni Dinner
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Download the European Tour PowerPoint presentation and dinner photos!
Guild of Carillonneurs Alumni Foundation
As we prepare to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs, the members of the Guild invite you to join the Guild of Carillonneurs Alumni Foundation. The Foundation will include all alumni who were part of either Guild while at Yale.
If you are interested in helping with the Foundation in any capacity, please contact Alumni Coordinator Ellen (Espenschied) Dickinson.
Download a letter [pdf] with detailed information, which was mailed to all alumni in February 2005.
Alumni, please email us and tell us where you are and what you are up to. We sent our 2004 Newsletter to all alumni in the winter of 2004. If you did not receive it, we probably do not have your current address--and that isn't acceptable!
Was the Guild run differently when you were here? If you have any "back in my day" stories, email them to us! We'd love to read them and, if you'd like, post them here online. We are also creating feature profiles of alumni who have continued to play the carillon or otherwise been involved in music. If you fall under one of those categories, please send us a profile and/or picture and you will be featured here!
2007
Claire Halpert (2005-2007 Co-Chair) (GCNA), Pierson College
Yesol Huh (GCNA), Silliman College
Geo Wyeth, Pierson College
2006
Christina Meyer (2005-2006 Co-Chair) (GCNA), Calhoun College
Rich Ramburg, School of Music
Betsy Williams, Jonathan Edwards College
2005
Jennifer Gardner, Erza Stiles College
Meredith Hughes, Saybrook College
Emily Johnson (2004-2005 Co-Chair), Branford College
Jon Lehrer (GCNA), Pierson College
Tom Lee (GCNA), Berkeley College
Eugenia Mok, Morse College
Tiffany Ng (2003-2005 Co-Chair) (GCNA), Timothy Dwight College
Brian Rodkey, Davenport College
2004
Elizabeth Adams, Berkeley CollegeElizabeth Bacon, Timothy Dwight College
Andrea Giese-Sweat (GCNA), Pierson College
Rena Sasaki, Berkeley College
Ken Shevlin (2002-2004 Co-Chair), Berkeley College
Claire Shorenstein, Pierson '03 & School of Music '04
2003
Catharine Bradford (2001-2002 Chair), Ezra StilesSuzanne Bratt (2002-2003 Co-Chair), Silliman College
Laura Horak, Calhoun College
Alexandra Milsom, Calhoun College
2002
Frecky Lewis (GCNA), School of MedicineMichael Horn, Pierson College
Julianne Parolisi, Calhoun College
Julian Revie, Trumbull College
Connie Tse, Ezra Stiles College
Matt Wrather, Calhoun College
2001
Sarah Donaldson, Pierson CollegeMichael Gelfand, Jonathan Edwards College
Emily Ingram, Trumbull College
Aruni Jayatilleke (2000-2001 Co-Chair), Silliman College
Roy Lee (1999-2001 Co-Chair) (GCNA), Silliman College [featured alumnus]
2000
Paul Fadoul, School of Music [featured alumnus]Cara Marr, Davenport College
Carolyn Nguyen, Jonathan Edwards College [featured alumna]
Rena Okino (1998-2000 Co-Chair), Timothy Dwight College
Ellice Wong, Calhoun College
1999
Ellen Espenschied Dickinson (1995-1997 Co-Chair) (GCNA), School of Music [featured alumna]Kate Jackman, Timothy Dwight College
Yun Kim, Ezra Stiles College
Bernice Lee, Pierson College
Elena Saxonhouse (1997-1999 Co-Chair), Saybrook College
1998
Helen Bailey, Ezra Stiles CollegeKareem Dright, Davenport College
Darryl Eaton, Saybrook College
Katherine Jackman
Kirsten Karsh, Pierson College
Frecky Lewis (1996-1998 Co-Chair), Timothy Dwight College
Jon Marr, Saybrook College
Ken Osowski, Davenport College
1995
Dr. William Ching (Royal Carillon School 'Jef Denyn')
1990
Heather Ewing (formerly Assisting Carillonneur at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and Washington National Cathedral)
1988
Christina Anderson (1986-1988 Co-Chair) (GCNA, Fulbright Scholar and BAEF Fellow at the Royal Carillon School 'Jef Denyn,' currently one of the two Carillonneurs of London)
1978
Katharine Webster (GCNA)
1977
Timothy Hurd (GCNA, Netherlands Carillon School, Royal Carillon School 'Jef Denyn,' 1981 Prix d'Excellence from Holland) [featured alumnus]
1975
Ed Pepe (1974-1975 Co-Chair) [featured alumnus]
1972
Winifred Li (1971-1972 Chairperson) (GCNA)
1971
Robert Bonds (1970-1971 Chairman) (GCNA, advanced at the 1969 Congress held at Yale. Youngest carillonneur in history to dedicate a carillon, namely, the carillon of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Spokane, Washington.)
1966
Bruce H. Eberle (GCNA, advanced at the 1969 Congress held at Yale. Succeeded Ira Schroeder as University Carillonneur at the Iowa State University of Science and Technology from 1969 to 1971.) [featured alumnus]
Honorary Member
Melvin C. Corbett (GCNA President, 1958-1960)
Letter from Alfred B. Nelson, bellringer from 1929-1933:
I [used] the nine bell frame (the one that's still in the tower, below the practice level). I rang the bells four times per day -- 8:00 A, 12:00 N, 6:00 P and 10:00 P, three days per week. Bells were rung the other four days by the son of the curator of the chimes.
The curator came from England and had been an employee of the English manufacturer that had made the bells. He had been in charge of the installation of the bells and stayed on to work for Yale. He was my boss.
The first Yale student bell ringer was Clarkson Barnes, class of 1925. Like the rest of us he was not a musician. His brother, Bartlett Barnes, class of 1929, inherited the job from his brother.
I lived next door to the Barnes brothers in Bristol, CT. I stayed with Bart in his room at Yale for one week during his senior year and became a bell ringer. Bart introduced me to the curator. I rang the bells for him and was hired, so in the fall of 1929, I assumed bell ringing duties.
On one occasion I wanted to see a movie, so I taught (?) one of my rommates, Tony Pasquariello to ring the 10:00 P number. He rang them but evidently could not hear what he had played so he repeated the ringing much harder this time.
The Yale Daily News reported that the bell ringer was obviously drunk.
I am sorry that I cannot recall the numbers I played. I do recall that the noon rendition was a number from the New World Symphony.
I was paid twenty-five dollars per month, good pay at that time.
In February 1933 -- the year I graduated -- I took my $25 check to cash at the Yale Bursar's office. The gentleman there said that he could not cash it as the Yale check was not any good. I asked him could he apply the $25 amount to my Yale bill? He said "No" as Yale did not have the funds to pay me. In March and April I again received worthless checks, but when I received the May check I was able to cash the four checks.
In this economy it is difficult to imagine how poor we all were in the years of the Great Depression.
When I graduated in June 1933, even though I had the top scholastic record in the Electrical Engineering group, I was unable to find a job of any kind. I delivered bakery for my mother who had a small home bakery.
I have told this story of Rich Levin and gave him a copy of a letter that I had received from one of my classmates, Carl Dewey. Those were days that none of today's students can possibly comprehend.
But there are always opportunities. In my bedroom in Bristol, I made an electrical invention using simple equipment. I started a very crude manufacturing operation. The product received world-wide acceptance. When I retired as President in 1970, we had 1000 employees in plants in the U.S., Canada and Holland.
I am still active in a family enterprise, Nelson Energy in Shreveport, LA.
Mrs. Nelson and I have four sons, two of them are Yale graduates.
My best wishes to you for great success.
Sincerely,
Alfred B. Nelson
