Guest Recital
John Gouwens, carillon
Repertoire to be announced
About the Artist
John Gouwens was appointed organist and carillonneur of the Culver Academies (Culver Military Academy/Culver Girls Academy) in fall 1980. From 1989 to 1990 and from 1996 to 2004, he also served as choir director of the academies. In fall 2002, he was also appointed visiting lecturer in carillon at Ball State University. Gouwens began his carillon studies at Indiana University with Linda Walker Pointer, playing his first carillon recital on the Metz Carillon in 1977. He holds organ performance degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Kansas. He has played recitals on many important carillons throughout the United States and Canada, including performances at 10 congresses of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) and at a congress of the World Carillon Federation. Gouwens is a carillonneur member of the GCNA and serves on its Music Publications Committee. He served for 28 years as chairman of the Johan Franco Composition Fund Committee, which sponsored composition competitions and commissioned new carillon compositions. Many of his carillon compositions have been published by the GCNA, American Carillon Music Editions, Inc., and the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium. In 1985 and 2004, he hosted the annual congresses of the GCNA at Culver. He is instructor in campanology (the historical and technical study of bells), composition, and improvisation at the North American Carillon School, Springfield, Ill. His organ and carillon playing have been included in five programs of American Public Media’s Pipedreams, and he has produced four CD recordings of the organ and carillon of Culver. In 2003, he wrote the first American carillon teaching book, Playing the Carillon: An Introductory Method, published by the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. In 2013, he wrote the textbook Campanology: A Study of Bells, with an Emphasis on the Carillon. Both are in use worldwide.
The Arthur R. Metz Memorial Carillon
A carillon is an instrument consisting of at least two octaves of bells (more, typically four, octaves in modern concert instruments) arranged in a chromatic series, played from a keyboard that permits expression through touch. Carillon bells must be tuned harmoniously enough to allow many notes to be sounded together in a variety of chords with an agreeable effect. Although there are many instruments with bells played inexpressively by an electrical apparatus and imitations of carillons broadcast through loudspeakers, none of those satisfy the above definition of a proper carillon.
The Arthur R. Metz Memorial Carillon and the smaller, lighter, School of Music Carillon, were donated by the Arthur R. Metz Foundation in 1971. The Metz Carillon is made up of 61 bells, ranging in weight from approximately 6,800 pounds to 25 pounds, providing a five-octave range. Both instruments were built by Royal Eijsbouts Bellfoundry of Asten, The Netherlands, a firm renowned for its restoration work of historic European carillons as well as for the precision of its tuning. In addition, there is a smaller instrument, technically called a “chime,” in the tower of the Student Building.
Cost: Free
For more information contact:
The Jacobs School of Music
(812) 855-9846
[email protected]