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Live from Harkness
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Contact us
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 201964,
New Haven CT 06520
Telephone:
+1 (203) 432-2309
Email:
carillon@yale.edu
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Carillonneurs'
Profiles
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June 19 - David Maker
David Maker began duties as interim Carillonneur of Trinity College in
Hartford in July 2007. Originally a percussionist and keyboard player,
Mr. Maker began carillon studies at Trinity under Daniel Kehoe, in
1995. He studied further with Sally Slade Warner in Cohasset,
Massachusetts, and most recently with Frans Haagen and Henk Verhoef at
the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort. He became a Carillonneur
member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 1999. Mr.
Maker has concertized extensively in the eastern U.S., the Netherlands,
and Portugal. His compositions for carillon are published by American
Carillon Music Editions. His "adapted change ringing" for carillon has
generated much interest here and abroad. From 1994 to 2007 he assumed
stewardship of UConn's Austin Cornelius Dunham Carillon, performing,
teaching, and undertaking many public relations initiatives.
Mr. Maker has just retired from a long tenure as Associate
Head of the Music Department at the University of Connecticut. He has
degrees and diplomas from Michigan State University, the University of
Connecticut, and The University of Calgary, with doctoral studies in
conducting at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of
Cincinnati. A former band director, Mr. Maker wrote over 350
arrangements and marching show designs for UConn, Boston College,
University of Cincinnati, several New England high schools, and drum
corps in Holland and Italy. He has adjudicated for the World
Association for Marching and Show Bands, and the World Music Contest
Kerkrade, among others. He has composed and arranged for orchestras,
choirs, bands, organ, and chamber ensembles. Mr. Maker founded and
conducted the Classic Brass, a British-style brass band in Connecticut.
Today he writes for the award-winning Spielmannszug Rödemis of Husum,
Germany.
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June 26 - Jason Lee
Jason Lee (born in Vancouver, Canada in 1985) moved from his
birthplace to Hong Kong when he was 3 and spent his childhood
there. He therefore only learned of the carillon when he noticed
an unmistakable sign that the beautiful bells from Yale's Harkness
Tower were played not by machines but by human beings – he noticed
mistakes. After weeks of lessons and a rigorous audition, Jason
joined the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs and found himself
spending much of the rest of his four years at Yale inside Harkness
Tower instead of studying for classes. He was elected as the
co-chair of the guild in 2006 and was reelected in 2007. In the
summer of 2008, Jason passed the Advancement Examination and became a
full member of the Guild of Carillonneurs North America (GCNA).
Upon
graduating from Yale with a B.A. in Music and in Ethics, Politics and
Economics, Jason moved to Belgium to study at the Royal Carillon School
"Jef Denyn" in Mechelen, where he graduated in June 2009 with Great
Distinction. After the summer, Jason is going to move once again
after the summer: this time to Cambridge in England to study law.
He still hopes to continue his passion for the carillon in the future,
at least in part by campaigning to get one built in Hong Kong.
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July 3 - Jon Lehrer
Jon Lehrer began his carillon studies in 2000 at Yale
University. After graduating he was a frequent performer on the
carillons of Frederick, Maryland and Arlington Cemetery, Virgina, and
has played four concert tours spanning the US, Canada, Belgium, and the
Netherlands. Jon is laureate of several international competitions for
carillon, most notably the Queen Fabiola International Carillon
Competition. He is a graduate of the Belgian Royal Carillon School 'Jef
Denyn' where he studied with Eddy Marien, Geert D'Hollander, and Koen
Cosaert, and he is a carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs
of North America. Since 2008, he has been performing the Cast in Bronze
theatrical carillon show on the Mobile Millenium Carillon (formerly the
Eijsbouts travelling carillon) at Renaissance festivals across the
country. When not performing, Jon enjoys studying tai chi and
hanggliding.
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photo by Bruno Schlumberger,
Ottawa Citizen
reprinted with permission |
July 10 - Gordon Slater
Gordon Slater studied the piano from the age of four and started
playing the carillon when he was seven by assisting his father, James,
the former Carillonneur at the Metropolitan United Church in Toronto.
Mr. Slater majored on bassoon at the University of Toronto's Faculty of
Music and later studied the carillon with Milford Myhre.
He held the position of Carillonneur at three Canadian carillons: the
Rainbow Tower Carillon in Niagara Falls, Ontario; the Carlsberg
Carillon of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto; and the
Soldiers' Tower Carillon of the University of Toronto before being
appointed Dominion Carillonneur of Canada in 1977. In the latter
position Gordon Slater played the Peace Tower Carillon at the Houses of
Parliament in Ottawa for 31 years. Now retired he continues to perform
there occasionally, tour, teach and give carillon master classes.
Since 1978, Mr. Slater has been a Carillonneur member of the Guild of
Carillonneurs in North America and was co-editor, with his wife Elsa,
of that organization's annual Bulletin from 1979 to 1985. He has served
on the Board of Directors, the Examination Committee and the Music
Selection Committee. Mr. Slater has performed widely, in Canada, the
United States, England, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and has made
several carillon recordings. He holds the Berkeley Medal from the
University of California at Berkeley for distinguished service to the
carillon.
Gordon Slater conducts Divertimento Orchestra, a seventy-piece amateur
symphony, and plays bassoon and contrabassoon with the Ottawa Symphony
Orchestra.
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July 17 - Daniel K. Kehoe
Daniel Kerry Kehoe has a carillon career spanning 35 years. He
began playing in September 1974 while a student at Trinity
College. He initially studied with carillonneur Raymond
Keldermans in his home town of Springfield, Illinois. College
summers were spent as a performing tourguide at the Rees Carillon in
Springfield, where he has twice returned to perform in the
International Carillon Festival. From 1982 until 2007 Mr. Kehoe
was the first appointed College Carillonneur at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut. He joined the music staff of the Simsbury
United Methodist Church in July 2007.
In 1978 he studied briefly
with Mr. Piet van den Broek at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen,
Belgium. Since that time Mr. Kehoe has performed extensively on
towers throughout New England and the eastern seaboard. He has
recorded two albums on the carillon, “Summer Sounds at Seven” and “A
Carillon Christmas,” and is a Carillonneur member of the Guild of
Carillonneurs in North America.
In 2005 Mr. Kehoe conducted the
premiere of his first commissioned work for choir, organ, handbells,
and orchestra entitled “Journey Suite.” See www.JourneySuite.com.
Mr.
Kehoe is the founder and director of the Around Town Singers, a
community chorus in north central Connecticut. See
www.AroundTownSingers.org for more information.
. . .
For information on bells and carillons, please see the web page of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America at www.gcna.org.
. . .
The
Simsbury United Methodist Church, in conjunction with the Farmington
Valley Carillon Society, features summer carillon concerts on the
Foreman Carillon during the month of July each Sunday evening at 7
p.m. Concerts are held rain or shine.
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July 24 - Helen Hawley
Helen Hofmeister Hawley
holds both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ
performance from the University of Kansas and has done post-graduate
study in Cologne, Germany. She received her carillon instruction
at the University of Kansas as a student of Albert Gerken. She is
on the national board for the GCNA (Guild of Carillonneurs in North
America) and also has served as a juror on the Exam Committee.
Ms. Hawley has performed carillon recitals in Connecticut, Florida,
Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington; and in
Europe, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Also an active member of the AGO
(American Guild of Organists), she is on the executive board of the
Grand Rapids Chapter. She currently serves as Minister of Music
at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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July 31 - Ellen Dickinson
Ellen Dickinson holds the Master of Music degree in organ from
the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, and the
Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale College. She is Director of Music
at Norfield Congregational Church in Weston, Connecticut. In 2006, she
co-founded the Jubilate Ringers, a community handbell ensemble. She is
the founding director of the Weston Summer Chorus and directed the Yale
Summer Chorus for five seasons. She has served as guest conductor of
the Florilegium Chamber Choir, New York City, and was director of the
Yale Freshman Chorus.
Ellen currently serves as Yale
University's carillon consultant and advisor. As an undergraduate, she
was co-chair and Summer Carillonneur of the Yale University Guild of
Carillonneurs. She has attended the Summer Academy at the Netherlands
Carillon School in Amersfoort, Netherlands, where she studied with Todd
Fair. In June of 2000 she played an advancement recital to become a
carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America
(GCNA). She serves as GCNA vice president and as editor of its annual
Bulletin. She has performed carillon recitals throughout the United
States, Canada, and Europe.
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August 7 - Vera Wünsche and
Katherine Zhou (2009 summer carillonneurs)
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August 14 - Thomas Lee
Thomas Lee (b. 1983) was introduced to the carillon world
while an undergraduate at Yale University. After graduating with
a BA in psychology in 2005, he promptly ran to study at the Royal
Carillon School ‘Jef Denyn’ in Mechelen on a Fulbright Grant. He
graduated in 2006 with “Greatest Distinction”, and returned to the US
where he received his Guild of Carillonneurs in North America
accreditation in the same month. He is one half of the carillon
duo “Campana Nova”, along with his carillon teacher Eddy Mariën, as
well as a founding member of the Oscuro Quintet
(www.oscuroquintet.com), Philadelphia’s first Tango Nuevo
ensemble. He has played carillon concerts around the US, Belgium,
and the Netherlands. In his spare time, he is a graduate student
in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and in his other, less
frequent spare time, he enjoys salsa dancing.
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