Summer Carillon Concert Series Artist Bios
Julianne Vanden Wyngaard
June 30
Julianne Vanden Wyngaard
Julianne Vanden Wyngaard served as GVSU’s first professional carillonist, from 1996 to her retirement in 2019. She is a member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America and has served on its board, as adjudicator, and as President. Julianne received her musical training at Eastman School of Music where she studied with Armand Basile, completing her work with him at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee. She joined the Grand Valley State University faculty as piano professor and soloist in 1965 and served as Chair of the GVSU music department from 1984-1996. When GVSU acquired two carillons, she enrolled in the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort, NL where she earned a diploma in carillon, performance and literature. On her return to GVSU, she nurtured the study of carillon and established this very summer carillon concert series, which has flourished for 25 years and hopefully many more to come.
Jeremy Chesman
Jeremy Chesman
July 7
Jeremy Chesman is an artist, scholar, teacher, and healer (but he’s not as pretentious as he seems). He was the first person to graduate from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in carillon performance (admittedly, a little ostentatious). He then went on to study at the Royal Carillon School of Belgium as a fellow of the Belgian-American Educational Foundation, graduating with distinction. He subsequently earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance from the University of Missouri- Kansas City. During a global pandemic, he decided it would be a good time to earn a degree in Speech-Language Pathology with a focus on voice disorders.
Dr. Chesman has dedicated his career to a deep study of diverse facets of music. His research in pedagogy has resulted in the book Making Music on the Carillon and two albums with Alfred Music of the music for the Suzuki Organ School, volumes 7 and 8. His invited masterclasses have taken him to such institutions as Yale University and the Universities of Michigan and Texas. As speech-language pathologist, he has presented research on the aging voice, caring for vocal performers, and laryngeal health. He performs regularly on organ, carillon, and harp in such exotic locales as Australia, Canada, France, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, and the Netherlands. He is happiest making music on Sunday mornings with his faith community at St. James Episcopal Church using music, where he uses music to help give glimpses of the divine.
John Widmann
July 14
John Widmann
John Widmann is the City Carillonneur for the City of Frederick, Maryland, where he plays recitals every Sunday at 12:30, year round, on the Joseph Dill Baker Carillon in Baker Park. He has now held that position for thirty-four years. Mr. Widmann graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and completed his Master of Music degree from Towson University in 2011. In 2021-2022, Mr. Widmann obtained his diploma, met onderscheding (cum laude) at the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn” in Mechelen, Belgium. In addition to his Sunday recitals, he retired in 2021 from Frederick County Public Schools where he was a General/Vocal Music teacher. He is also the Organist and Choir Master for St. Francis Episcopal Church in Potomac, Maryland. Mr. Widmann became a Carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 1996, and is a past member of the National Board of that organization. He maintains an active concert schedule, and has played frequently in the US, along with recitals in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, England, Canada, and the Netherlands Antilles. He lives in Frederick with his wife and has two grown children, and in October of last year, a granddaughter.
Ellen Dickenson
Ellen Dickenson
July 21
Ellen Dickinson is University Carillonneur at Yale University, and College Carillonist at Trinity College. More than thirty of her students have completed the exam process to become Carillonneur members of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA). In 2020, Ellen was commissioned by a consortium of six colleges to write A New Carillon Book, a beginning carillon lesson book featuring diverse music from many people and places, and original music.
She has served the GCNA in many capacities, most recently as chair of the Sally Slade Warner Arrangements and Transcriptions Competition. She was awarded the GCNA Certificate of Extraordinary Service in 2017 for distinguished service to the carillon art worldwide.
Ellen has been responsible for commissioning over 70 new pieces for carillon, including the largest new music project in the history of the carillon art: “50 for the 50th,” 50 new works in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Yale Memorial Carillon. Ellen is Artistic Director of Music on the Hill, an independent music organization with performing ensembles and music education opportunities. An active composer, her commissioned works include choral, handbell, and carillon music.
Margaret Pan
July 28
Margaret Pan
Margaret Pan is a freelance carillonneur based in Boston. She has performed around the world, including as a featured recitalist at festivals in Europe and North America and at congresses of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) and the World Carillon Federation. She was winner of the 2017 international competition in Springfield, Illinois and third laureate in the 2019 Queen Fabiola competition in Mechelen, Belgium. Margaret has taught beginning students at UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto and given masterclasses at Yale and Toronto. She has also served on the GCNA exam committee for over a decade, initially as juror and currently as co-chair. Margaret began studying carillon in 2007 at Princeton University, graduated from the Mechelen carillon school in 2012, and was a fellow at Bok Tower Gardens in 2015. Margaret's academic degrees (SB and PhD) are in physics and astrophysics and she works as an astronomer at the Smithsonian Institution studying planetary dynamics in our and other solar systems.
David Hunsberger
David Hunsberger
August 4
David Hunsberger has served as Assistant Carilloner at UC Berkeley since 1983. He studied carillon with James R Lawson at the Riverside Church in New York City, and with Raymond Keldermans in Springfield IL and has given carillon recitals widely in the US, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. He has also taught music at the Thailand Theological Seminary in Chiang Mai, at Webster College in Webster Groves MO, and at Washington University; and has been an organist at Methodist, Episcopal, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches since the age of 13.
David practiced law in Berkeley for eight years before assuming an administrative staff position with the University of California. For 35 years he has been the legal counsel to The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, and for 25 years was its treasurer. He holds the record for years served on its Board of Directors (22½) and as an officer (43), and for the consecutive number of congresses (annual meetings) attended (51).
He is married to Neil, his companion of 35 years. Their house’s tiny plot in Oakland has seven coastal redwood trees on it. He manages nearly every year to drive cross-country in his convertible. He does a lot of sudoku. He’s not much of a cook but likes people who are.