Carillons of Grand Valley State University

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 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.