A special performance on the Cook Carillon on Monday, November 15, will mark a historic event for Grand Valley: the 10-year anniversary of the dedication of the Cook Carillon.
The anniversary will be celebrated at noon on November 15 with a carillon recital by GVSU Carillonneur Julianne Vanden Wyngaard and other special events. Included on the program will be music performed at the first recital in 1994 as well as "Tolling of the Iron Bell," a carillon piece composed by GVSU assistant music professor Kurt Ellenberger. The carillon tower will be open for visitors both during and after the recital. Listeners may gather in the courtyard surrounding the Cook Carillon Tower or inside the adjacent Cook-DeWitt Center, where refreshments will be available.
The public is invited to the celebratory event.
Grand Valley's Cook Carillon was installed in October 1994 in the new 110-foot tower that has become a landmark on the Allendale Campus. The 48 bells in the tower, ranging in weight from 3,000 to 14 pounds, were cast in bronze and installed by the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry in the Netherlands. Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, now associate dean of Arts and Humanities, graduated from the Netherlands Carillon School in 2000, becoming only the fourth American woman to graduate from the prestigious school. Since then, Grand Valley's summer carillon concert series has become an annual event in West Michigan.
The Cook Carillon Tower is named in honor of major donors Peter C. and Pat Cook. In 2001, Grand Valley's second carillon, the Beckering Family Carillon was dedicated on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus.
In June 2005, Grand Valley will further its carillon tradition by hosting the 2005 congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. More than 100 carillonneurs are expected to attend.
