EVENTS Calendar

Carillonneur Biographies 2009

Sue Bergren

PHOTO: Sue Bergren 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 the guild as coeditor for Carillon News, the GCNA's newsletter, and recently became owner of American Carillon Music Editions (ACME), a publisher of carillon music.

Ms. Bergren 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 Illinois, Missouri, and Michigan.

Jim Brown

PHOTO: Jim Brown Jim Brown began carillon study in 2001 with Wylie Crawford, then city carillonneur of Naperville, Illinois and University of Chicago carillonneur at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. He earned the certification as a Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) at the Guild's 2003 Congress in Berea, Kentucky. In October 2003, he was named an assistant city carillonneur of Naperville. He also plays regularly at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in Chicago.

Mr. Brown holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Benedictine University, 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.

Jeremy Chesman

PHOTO: Jeremy Chesman Jeremy Chesman, university carillonist and assistant professor of music at Missouri State University, is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he was the first person to earn a Master of Music degree in carillon performance. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. His performances have been broadcast in the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan, and he has performed throughout the U.S. as well as in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Portugal, where he played a recital of American music at the National Palace in Mafra on the European Union's day of mourning for the events of September 11.

Dr. Chesman studied carillon with Margo Halsted and Todd Fair at the University of Michigan. As a fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, he studied carillon with Eddy Mariën and composition with Geert D'Hollander at the Royal Carillon School of Belgium, where he earned a Final Diploma with Distinction.

Wylie Crawford

PHOTO: Wylie Crawford Wylie Crawford has been the resident carillonneur for the Chicago Botanic Garden since 1986, as well as the university carillonneur at the University of Chicago (since 1984) and the seminary carillonneur for Seabury Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He was the first city carillonneur for the Millennium Carillon in Naperville, Illinois.

With an undergraduate degree in physics and a graduate degree in teaching from the University of Chicago, Mr. Crawford is pleased to have begun the first regular carillon instruction programs at four Chicago-area carillons.

Mr. Crawford fulfilled the requirements of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America to become a certified Carillonneur in 1977. During his 35-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 (www.gcna.org). 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.

Mr. Crawford serves as president of the World Carillon Federation (www.carillon.org), a federation of international associations that organizes conferences in countries with a carillon culture. Previously, Mr. Crawford was its treasurer (from 1990 until 2006).

A Chicago native, he is the father of twin daughters and husband of Erica Karp, a portrait artist. Mr. Crawford also is the president of Compassionate Computing, a computer training and support organization.

Dennis Curry

PHOTO: Dennis Curry Dennis Curry is carillonneur and associate organist at Kirk in the Hills, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. His carillon studies began with Dr. Frederick Marriott, longtime Kirk carillonneur. He advanced to Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) in 1989. President of the GCNA for the last five years, Mr. Curry has also served on the board of directors and as juror on the Guild's Student Examination Committee. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Carillon Federation (WCF), serving as its vice president. In 2001 with the support of the Kirk, he hosted the 59th Congress of the GCNA, which honored the centennials of Percival Price and Frederick Marriott. He supervised the formation of the Marriott Memorial Library and the complete renovation of the Kirk carillon — the world's largest (77 bells).

In 2011, Mr. Curry will host WCF's World Congress, celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the GCNA, at what is anticipated to be the largest gathering of carillonneurs in history.

A carillon recitalist in the United States, Europe, and Asia, Mr. Curry has also performed in several prestigious international carillon festivals: Springfield (2002), Historic Bok Tower & Sanctuary (2003), Løgumkloster (2007), and Centralia (2002/2009). His other musical endeavors have included serving as section leader for the Detroit Symphony Chorale & Chorus and president of the Kenneth Jewell Chorale, and appearances as organist and vocalist at area churches and synagogues. He recently retired from Ford Motor Company after 38 years as Regional Manager for Environmental & Safety Engineering in Eastern/Central Europe, Central Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

Jeff Davis

PHOTO: Jeff Davis Jeff Davis was appointed university carillonist at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000. He began carillon studies in 1984 with Berkeley's first university carillonist, Ronald Barnes. Prior to his tenure at Berkeley, Mr. Davis was the university carillonist at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Mr. Davis passed the advancement examination of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 1988 and has served that organization in a variety of offices; currently he is on the juries of both the Johan Franco Composition Committee and the Examination Committee. Davis was a director of the Guild from 1996 to 2001, and president from 1996 to 2000. In addition to service for the GCNA, Mr. Davis has also served as a member of the Committee of Delegates of the World Carillon Federation.

Mr. Davis has given recitals throughout the United States and Europe. He has been a guest artist in the Ann Arbor Festival, the Barcelona International Festival, and has twice represented the GCNA in recitals at congresses of the World Carillon Federation. He was awarded the Berkeley Medal for distinguished service to the carillon in 1993.

A composer as well as carillonist, Davis studied composition with Don Gillis, Deems Taylor, and Howard Hanson. He attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, and was made a distinguished alumnus of Interlochen in 1974. His works, in a wide variety of media, have not been performed nearly enough.

Ana and Sara Elias (Lvsitanvs)

LVSITANVS, a carillon duo from Portugal, consists of two sisters, the Portuguese carillonneurs Ana and Sara Elias.

Ana and Sara Elias obtained their musical diplomas in piano, recorder, and Gregorian chant in 1997 and 2002, respectively, from the Gregorian Institute of Lisbon. In that same city, they studied geological and mining engineering at the Higher Technical Institute. In 2008, Ana graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering science from the Institute, and she will receive a master's degree from the Institute in engineering science in December 2009.

In 2000 and 2004, Ana and Sara, respectively, graduated with "great distinction" from the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn” in Mechelen, Belgium. Ana graduated in 2004 from the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven, Belgium, with a Master of Music degree in carillon performance and pedagogy. In 2005, Sara became a Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, and in 2006 she graduated from Missouri State University with a Master of Music degree in carillon performance. In May 2009, she graduated from this same school with a master's degree in business administration.

Individually and together, the Elias sisters have played numerous carillon recitals in their native Portugal, as well as in several other countries in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States. They are regularly requested as performers or lecturers for international carillon congresses and festivals. Their carillon playing can be heard on a CD they recorded at the Clérigos Carillon in Oporto on the occasion of “Oporto 2001, Cultural Capital of Europe.” Together, they shared the title of carillonneur at the Pastorinhos Carillon in Alverca, Portugal, between 2005 and 2006.

In 2004, Ana and Sara were the winners of the Prémio Milénio Sagres-Expresso competition, the largest and most important Portuguese award established for young Portuguese people with new projects that are innovative and relevant to the Portuguese society. The sisters presented a project for the promotion of the carillon, its music and the art of playing it, which foresees acquiring a traveling carillon. With the proceeds from this prize, Ana, Sara, and their father created the Fundação CICO, a foundation for the promotion and teaching of the arts. This foundation will allow the establishment of the first international carillon school in the Iberian Peninsula, which foresees frequent exchange programs and connections with other schools worldwide.

Mark Lee

PHOTO: Mark Lee Mark Lee holds a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Benedictine University and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the American Conservatory and is active as an independent music teacher, performer, and adjudicator. He currently serves as director of music at Sixth-Grace Presbyterian Church and St. Bonaventure Oratory in Chicago, and as choir director at Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville, Illinois.

Mr. Lee is certified as a Carillonneur by the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America and performs regularly at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and at Naperville's Millennium Carillon. He currently serves as coeditor of the Guild's newsletter, Carillon News.

Mr. Lee is also an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music Examinations in Toronto, Ontario.

Ray McLellan

PHOTO: Ray McLellan Ray McLellan was appointed university carillonneur at Michigan State University in 1997, where he teaches and performs on the 49-bell Beaumont Tower carillon.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Florida Southern College in Lakeland and his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan (UM). His junior year was spent in Freiburg, Germany, where he studied music and experienced the wonderful culture of southern Germany and the Black Forest region. While working on his doctorate in organ performance with Marilyn Mason at UM, Dr. McLellan discovered the carillon and began studies with Margo Halsted in 1989. He further pursued carillon studies at the Carillon Netherlands School in Amersfoort.

Dr. McLellan played his performance examination recital to become a Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in 1991, in Waco, Texas, and has served on both the Examinations Committee as well as the Nominations Committee for the guild. He has performed numerous recitals on carillons throughout the United Sates, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

In addition to carillon, Dr. McLellan teaches organ and piano, and is also a church/synagogue musician. He is the director of music at St. Michael Parish in Monroe, Michigan, and the organist for Temple Beth Emeth, where he accompanies Kol Halev, a chorus that regularly performs around the world.

Gert Oldenbeuving

PHOTO: Gert Oldenbeuving Gert Oldenbeuving, born in 1946, is the appointed carillonneur in Zutphen, Lochem, Groenlo, Winterswijk and Nijmegen, playing weekly recitals in these Dutch cities. He studied in Amersfoort at the Dutch Carillon School with Peter Bakker. During the 1972 Springfield (Illinois) Carillon Festival he met the French master-carillonneur Jacques Lannoy and studied with him one year in Douai, France.

Mr. Oldenbeuving served as president of the Dutch Carillon Guild (NKV) from 1982 till 1994. In 1990, he was the host of the 8th International World Carillon Federation (WCF) Congress in Zutphen, and in 2006 he was artistic director of the WCF Congress in Gdansk, Poland. During this Congress he received “The Golden Cross Medal” from the Polish government for his work in promoting the carillon culture in Gdansk. For several years, he has been the carillon professor at the Music Academy of Gdansk.

Mr. Oldenbeuving has played carillon recitals in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Several radio, television, and CD recordings have been made of his carillon playing. He is also a well-known organist in the Netherlands and is the organist at the “Grote Kerk” in Aalten. Since 2000, Mr. Oldenbeuving has been an official consultant for bells and organs with the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands.

Marcel Siebers

PHOTO: Marcel Siebers Marcel Siebers, born in 1955, holds a master's degree in piano from the Arnhem Conservatory as well as a practical diploma and a performing artist diploma from the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort, where his teacher was Arie Abbenes.

Mr. Siebers has played many carillon recitals in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He serves as a municipal carillonneur in Venlo and in Cuijk, both in the Netherlands. He also is the carillonneur of the Millennium Carillon of the Aldegundis Church in Emmerich (Germany).

Mr. Siebers is an active composer for carillon as well as for other instruments. Several of his compositions and arrangements for two-octave carillon are published in the Cuijks Beiaardboek. His "Fantasy on an Old French Chanson" was awarded second prize in a composition competition held in 1994 by the French Guild of Carillonneurs and was published by the same organization. His "Prelude con Fughetta" was also awarded second prize in the Johan Franco Composition Competition in 1996. For the 2004 carillon contest in Venlo, he wrote "Bronze Green Oak Cappriccio." Mr. Siebers' compositions are written in the "New Dutch" romantic style, reflecting influences of Flemish romantic carillon music and incorporating a broad harmonic vocabulary. In 2007, he was awarded the newly established Culture Prize of the city of Cuijk.

Mr. Siebers is board member of the Dutch Carillon Guild (NKV) since 2002. Besides his carillon activities, he is the director of music at the St. Willibrord Church in Mill and teaches piano, both at a regional school of music and in his own music studio.

Tim Sleep

PHOTO: Tim Sleep Tim Sleep, Naperville City Carillonneur, performs regularly on the Millennium Carillon in Naperville, Illinois, and at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. He also tours, performing guest carillon recitals throughout the United States.

After studying carillon with Wylie Crawford and John Gouwens, he became a Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) in 2004. He holds a bachelor's degree in music education from North Central College in Naperville and a Master of Science degree In educational administration from Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois.

A retired band director, middle-school principal, and long-time church musician, Mr. Sleep currently serves as organist for Our Saviour's Lutheran Church and Knox Presbyterian Church, both of Naperville.

Carol Anne Taylor

PHOTO: Carol Anne Taylor Carol Anne Taylor is the director of children's choirs, carillonneur, and organist at Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Dallas, Texas. She earned a Master of Music degree in organ performance at the University of North Texas in 1996, where she studied with Jesse Eschbach and Madame Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier. Ms. Taylor received a Bachelor of Church Music degree with a concentration in piano and organ from Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana. She studies carillon with George Gregory, organist and carillonneur at Central Christian Church in San Antonio, Texas.

In June 2008 at Berkeley, California, Ms. Taylor was accepted as a Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America by completing its advancement examination process, which culminated in a performance for a jury panel and members of the Guild. She also received the Ronald Barnes Memorial Scholarship to study carillon performance with William De Turk at the Bok Tower Gardens in Lakes Wales, Florida.

Ms. Taylor enjoys making jewelry; spending time with her mini macaw, Sebastian; and running marathons.

Julianne Vanden Wyngaard

PHOTO: Julianne Vanden Wyngaard Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, a noted concert pianist, joined the music faculty at Grand Valley State University (Michigan) in 1967 and has been principal performer/teacher on the Cook Carillon since its dedication in 1994. Since the dedication of the second carillon at the Grand Valley Campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2000, she has added the Beckering Family Carillon to her roster of weekly performances.

Ms. Vanden Wyngaard began her university music study at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, with pianist Armand Basile; she continued to study with him at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She was introduced to the carillon upon her return to Michigan and as soon as her tenure as chair of the music department at Grand Valley State University was completed, she was able to concentrate on her study of the carillon. She studied at the Netherlands Carillon School from 1996 to 2000, successfully completing the diploma requirements in carillon performance, literature, and arranging. She has been an active member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America since 1995 and achieved Carillonneur status with that organization in 1999. She is currently serving as a member of the Guild's Examination Committee.

Ms. Vanden Wyngaard and her husband live and travel in their motor home with three American Cocker Spaniels. She attempts to visit as many carillons as possible across the United States and beyond, and recently she played a carillon on the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean!