Events Calendar
About the Carillon
the CarillonNeurs
• Sue Bergren
• James Brown
• Lee Cobb
• Wylie Crawford
• Charles Dairay
• Doug Gefvert
• Helen Hofmeister
Hawley
• David Maker
• Anna Maria Reverté
i Casas
• Tim Sleep
• Frank Steijns
• Tin-Shi Tam
• Koen Van Assche
• Elizabeth Vitu
• Richard M. Watson
EVENTS Calendar
Carillonneur Biographies 2010
Sue Bergren is an assistant carillonneur at the Millennium Carillon in Naperville, Illinois. She studied carillon with Wylie Crawford and Karel Keldermans, and became a carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) in 2004. She currently serves as coeditor of Carillon News, the GCNA’s newsletter, and is music editor and owner of American Carillon Music Editions (ACME), a publishing company of carillon music.
She has a master’s degree in organ performance from Northern Illinois University and has served as music director and organist for several churches in the Naperville area. She is active as a carillon recitalist, having been a guest recitalist in the International Carillon Festival at the Rees Memorial Carillon in Springfield, Illinois, and has given recitals in seven states across the U.S. She plays regularly on the Naperville Millennium Carillon and gives weekly recitals on the Rockefeller Memorial Carillon at the University of Chicago.
James M. Brown began carillon study in 2001 with Wylie Crawford, then city carillonneur of Naperville, Illinois. He earned certification as a carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America at the Guild’s annual 2003 Congress in Berea, Kentucky. In October 2003, Mr. Brown was named an assistant city carillonneur of Naperville. He also performs regularly at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in Chicago.
Mr. Brown holds a bachelor of music education from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. He has served as a church organist since 1967, first at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Naperville and since 1978 at Visitation Catholic Church in Elmhurst, Illinois. He is an assistant branch manager with Wachovia Securities in Naperville, now a division of Wells Fargo & Company.
Lee Cobb is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and attended the University of Georgia as a music scholarship recipient. He has a bachelor’s degree in organ performance from Indiana University. While at Indiana, he performed on the 11-bell McShane chime on the historic campus, and became acquainted with the carillon. In 2003, he received a master of music degree in organ performance from the University of Florida, where he held assistantships in both carillon and organ. In 2004, he became a carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.
From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Cobb was the assistant carillonneur and librarian at Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida, where he played daily carillon recitals and maintained the Anton Brees Carillon Library. In 2006, he was awarded second prize honors in the Johan Franco Carillon Composition Competition sponsored by the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America for his Sonata for Carillon. Until 2009 he was parish musician at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Lake Wales, Florida.
Most recently, Mr. Cobb was appointed organist/choirmaster/carillonnuer of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Clearwater, Florida. He has toured extensively throughout the United States and the Netherlands as a carillon recitalist. A commissioned and published composer, he has many carillon, choral, and organ compositions to his credit. His "Suite for Carillon and Valse Capriccio" are available through American Carillon Music Editions.
Wylie Crawford has been the Chicago Botanic Garden’s resident carillonneur since 1986, the university carillonneur at the University of Chicago since 1984, and the seminary carillonneur for Seabury Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He was also the first city carillonneur for the Millennium Carillon in Naperville from 2000 until 2007, and he has just hosted the 68th meeting of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in Naperville.
Mr. Crawford is the president of the World Carillon Federation, an assembly of international associations that organizes conferences in countries with a carillon culture. Previously, he served as its treasurer from 1990 until 2006.
Mr. Crawford fulfilled the requirements of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) to become a certified Carillonneur in 1977. During his 36-year association with the Guild, he served three years as its vice president and is currently the chair of its membership committee and a member of the GCNA web committee. He has given carillon recitals in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and the U.S. He recently appeared as “The Spirit of the Bells” at the Florida Renaissance Festival.
Charles Dairay’s musical education started at a local French music school in 1980. In 1984, he began to play the carillon with Albert Boon in Wavre, Belgium, and in Saint-Amand les Eaux, France. He continued studying with Jacques Lannoy at the French Carillon School in Douai.
During his studies, he has won prizes for several musical instruments, including saxophone, piano, and bassoon. In 1996, he graduated as a carillon player from the National Conservatory of Douai with a final ciploma. He has also won prizes in numerous carillon competitions in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and the United States.
In June 2004, Mr. Dairay graduated from the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn” in Mechelen, Belgium, with highest honors. He is city carillonneur and instructor in Orchies and Le Quesnoy, the assistant carillonneur in Saint-Amand les Eaux, and the new carillonneur of Deinze, Belgium.
In June 2010, a carillon CD was released by the City of Deinze, featuring Mr. Dairay playing solos and duets with his students from the Music Academy.
Doug Gefvert is the carillonneur of the Washington Memorial National Carillon. He began his musical career at an early age by singing in his hometown church choir and taking organ lessons from local church organists. He continued his study of organ and church music, earning a bachelor of music degree in organ from Westminster College and a master’s degree in music history from Temple University.
While at Westminster College, Mr. Gefvert was introduced to the carillon, and later studied the instrument with Frank Péchin Law at the Washington Memorial National Carillon. He is a carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.
Before assuming the position of chapel carillonneur at the Washington Memorial National Carillon in 1999, Mr. Gefvert had been bellmaster at historic Old Christ Church in Philadelphia for 21 years. He has written and arranged numerous pieces for carillon and has recorded several carillon CDs. Mr. Gefvert works for the Verdin Bell Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, selling tower clocks, bells and bell preservation services in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Helen Hofmeister Hawley holds both a bachelor and master of music degrees in organ performance from the University of Kansas. She 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 a former member of the national board for the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America and also has served as a juror on its exam committee. Ms. Hawley has performed carillon recitals in 14 states across the United States and in Belgium and The Netherlands.
An active member of the American Guild of Organists, Ms. Hawley is on the executive board of its Grand Rapids Chapter. She currently serves as minister of music at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
David Maker is carillonneur-in-residence at Storrs Congregational Church, home of the University of Connecticut’s Austin Cornelius Dunham Carillon. Originally a percussionist and keyboard player, Mr. Maker assumed stewardship of the Dunham Carillon in 1994, performing, teaching, and undertaking many public relations initiatives. His early studies were with Daniel Kehoe at Trinity College, and with Sally Slade Warner in Cohasset, Massachusetts. Most recently he studied with Frans Haagen and Henk Verhoef at the Netherlands Carillon School. He advanced to carillonneur membership in the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 1999. Mr. Maker has concertized extensively in the eastern U.S., the Netherlands, Canada, and Portugal. "Paul Revere, Bellfounder" is the most recent of his compositions published by American Carillon Music Editions. His “adapted change ringing” for carillon has generated much interest here and abroad.
Mr. Maker 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 more than 350 arrangements and marching show designs for University of Connecticut, Boston College, University of Cincinnati, several New England high schools, and drum corps in Holland, Italy, and Germany. He has adjudicated for the World Association of 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 recently retired as associate head of the music department at the University of Connecticut.
Anna Maria Reverté i Casas is the carillonneur of the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia (seat of the Catalan government) since 1988.
After beginning her musical training at home, she continued her studies at the Conservatori Superior de Música in Barcelona, where she was graduated with pedagogical degrees in piano and solfege, and with studies of harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. She also has a degree in philosophy and science education from the University of Barcelona.
Ms. Reverté studied carillon with the former carillonneur of Barcelona, Maria Dolors Coll, and at the Netherlands Carillon School. She has won carillon performance awards in Germany and France, and first prize in carillon arranging at the World Carillon Federation Congress in Chambéry, France.
She has composed several pieces for carillon, including works for combinations of instruments. She has also arranged more than four hundred works for the carillon, many of which are works of Catalan origin.
Tim Sleep, Naperville city carillonneur, performs regularly on the Millennium Carillon in Naperville, Illinois, and Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. He also tours performing guest carillon recitals throughout the country. He currently serves as corresponding secretary of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) and secretary of the Millennium Carillon Foundation in Naperville, Illinois.
Mr. Sleep studied carillon with Wylie Crawford and John Gouwens and became a carillonneur member of the GCNA in 2004. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, and a master of science in educational administration from Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois. A retired band director and middle school principal, and long-time church musician, he currently serves as organist for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and Knox Presbyterian Church, both of Naperville, Illinois.
Frank Steijns was born with the sound of bells, on Christmas night. He studied carillon at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen (Belgium), where he graduated summa cum laude in 1991. At the Lemmens Institute in Leuven (Belgium) he studied violin, music theory, and conducting.
Mr. Steijns is the carillonneur for Maastricht, Heerlen and Weert, in the Netherlands. He also plays the violin in André Rieu’s Johann Strauss Orchestra. During the summer of 2005 he became the talk of André's fans when, during the concerts on the Vrijthof in Maastricht, he "ran up" the stairs of the Servaas church tower and played the carillon, accompanied by André and his orchestra. This concert, which is available on DVD, has been broadcast in more than 20 countries (including PBS nationwide) with an estimated viewership of more than 100 million.
In 2006 Mr. Steijns toured with a custom-designed 41-bell mobile carillon throughout the world, giving concerts in the major cities of North America, Europe, and Japan. With this instrument, he wants to reach people that normally don’t see a carillon being played.
Last Christmas this unique carillon was stolen, but with help from fans, funds, and organizations, a new instrument is on its way.
Tin-Shi Tam has given recitals in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, and the United States. She was a featured carillon recitalist at the Festival International de Carillon en Côte d'Or in France, the Twelfth International Carillon Festival at Bok Tower Gardens in Florida, and several congresses of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA). In 2008, Ms. Tam represented the GCNA by performing at the World Carillon Federation Congress in Groningen, the Netherlands.
As an active clinician, Ms. Tam has given extensive master classes, lectures, and education programs. Her recent lecture topics include bells and bell music in China, and music for carillon and orchestra. Her carillon compact disk, “The Bells of Iowa State,” was released in 2004.
A native of Hong Kong, Ms. Tam is also a fellow of the Trinity College of Music (London). She completed a D.M.A. degree in organ at the University of Michigan, where she studied organ and carillon. She has master's degrees in arts management from Durham University, England, in organ performance from the University of Wales in Cardiff, and a bachelor's degree in music from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Ms. Tam has served as the dean of the American Guild of Organists’ central Iowa chapter, and as a member of the board of directors of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. At present, she is the Cownie professor of music, the university carillonneur, and chair of the keyboard division at Iowa State University.
Koen Van Assche is the city carillonneur for the Belgian cities of Leuven, Turnhout, and Herentals. In Turnhout, he plays the best-preserved carillon of the eighteenth century, an instrument of the famous bellfounder Andreas-Jozef Vanden Gheyn.
He studied music and flute in his native Antwerp, and began his carillon studies at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen (Belgium) when he was 14 years old. He graduated from that institution in 1986 and has since won performance prizes at several international carillon competitions. He is also known for his performances at special concerts where the carillon is combined with other instruments.
Mr. Van Assche created a new playing method for the carillon and teaches carillon at four academies of music in Belgium, for adults and children. He was a guest professor at the Danish Carillon School and at the Royal Academy of Music in Middelburg (the Netherlands).
He is also a member of the board of the Flemish Carillon Guild, and a member of the Executive Committee of the World Carillon Federation.
The duo “Reverté i Van Assche” was created in 2003. Both carillonneurs have recorded several CDs for carillon, and they perform carillon concerts all over the world. In the United States, they have performed for the carillon festivals of Lake Wales (Florida), Springfield (Illinois), and Berkeley (California).
Elizabeth Vitu studied carillon with Charles Chapman in Luray, Virginia, for nine years, during which time she often participated in work sessions at the carillon with Johan Franco and LaSalle Spier. She pursued her carillon studies at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, which created a music degree (option carillon) especially for her. From 1976 until 1980 she studied with James Leland, Roy Hamlin Johnson, and John Diercks, and had an internship with Milford Myhre. Upon receiving her diploma with honors, she studied for two years with Jacques Lannoy at the Ecole Française de Carillon in Douai, France.
Ms. Vitu was named assistant carillonneur of the Perpignan Cathedral in France from 1999 to 2005 and was named carillonneur by Episcopal decree in 2006. She is responsible for organizing the Perpignan International Carillon Festival, which is in its eighth year. She has edited music and made arrangements of music for publication in both England and the United States, is an active member of the British Carillon Society, and regularly gives concerts throughout Europe and the United States. For the first time in the history of the Perpignan Conservatory of Music, and upon initiative by the cathedral carillonneurs, a carillon class will begin as of September 2010, with Ms. Vitu as professor.
Richard M. Watson received his musical training privately and at the University of Wisconsin. While at the university, he served as assistant university carillonneur from 1963 until 1968. He was appointed university carillonneur and lecturer in music at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, in 1968. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1973 to become director of the Cast Bell Chime and Carillon Division of the I.T. Verdin Company, and has been a full-time designer of carillons and chimes and a consultant on bell tuning and acoustics since that time.
With William C. Meeks, he founded Meeks, Watson & Company in 1991. The firm, located in Georgetown, Ohio, is engaged in bell founding, chime and carillon building, and renovation work.
Mr. Watson has been active as a carillon recitalist since 1966, and has given recitals in many parts of North America. He is a carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, has served as a director of this professional organization, and has presented recitals and papers at several of the Guild's annual Congresses. He received the Berkeley Medal for outstanding service to the art of the carillon in 1983.
Mr. Watson is one of two active carillonneurs on the staff of the Mary M. Emery Memorial Carillon, in Mariemont (Cincinnati), Ohio. He has served as organist of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Cincinnati for 25 years, and has been director of music for many Synods of the Anglican Province of America.
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