Ringing in summer with Grand Valley's Carillon Series

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- The Grand Valley State University Summer Carillon Concert Series brings some of the world’s finest carillonneurs to perform on both campuses, rain or shine. The Beckering Family International Carillon Series, on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus, runs Wednesdays at noon, beginning July 11. The Cook Carillon International Concert Series runs Sundays at 8 p.m., on the Allendale Campus, June through August.

Loretta Lanning will open the Allendale Campus series on June 17. Lanning is in her final year at Grand Valley, where she is majoring in piano and classical languages. Last summer she passed the requirements for carillonneur membership in The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in Congress at Yale University. She will perform arrangements from Bach to folksongs.

The June 24 concert in Allendale features Sue Bergren, an assistant carillonneur at Millennium Carillon in Naperville, Illinois and regular weekly performer at the Rockefeller Memorial Carillon in Chicago, and many other Illinois locations. A carillonneur member of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, she also co-edits the Carillon News.

Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, Grand Valley State University carillonneur, will perform July 1 and July 4 in Allendale. A noted concert pianist, Vanden Wyngaard joined Grand Valley’s music faculty in 1967. She has been principal performer on the Cook Carillon since its dedication in 1994, and on the Beckering Family Carillon, dedicated on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus in 2000.

Vanden Wyngaard, who is phasing into retirement from Grand Valley, will perform a festive celebration of the American spirit. To help commemorate our nation’s birthday, the Cook Carillon will also be part of a nationwide, simultaneous bell-ringing ceremony, initiated at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, with 13 tolls rung at 2 p.m. on July 4. Other participating sites include Arlington National Cemetery, the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, West Point Chapel, and every ship in the U.S. Navy, the Coast Guard, and the Merchant Marine.

The Cook series continues in Allendale throughout the summer with:

• July 8 - Suzanne Magassey, Australia
• July 15 - Gijsbert Kok, the Netherlands
• July 22 - GVSU Carillon Collaborative – A Holiday Festival
• July 29 - George Gregory, San Antonio, Texas
• August 5 - Laura Ellis, University of Florida
• August 12 - Todd Fair, University of Denver
• August 19 - Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, Grand Valley State University

MEDIA NOTE: Julianne Vanden Wyngaard is available for interviews and talk shows.

For more information call (616) 331-3484, or visit www.gvsu.edu/music .