The Bells of Summer

Summer Sundays, 5 pm
June 20 to August 22, 2021 (no recital on July 4)

Rockefeller Chapel hosts its 55th Bells of Summer Concert Season! Bring your summer picnic and blanket or picnic chairs to the east lawn, and enjoy the beautiful sound of the bells, played by virtuoso carillonneurs from the greater Chicago area and beyond.

Another lovely place from which to listen is the Booth School of Business courtyard, on the other side of Woodlawn Avenue. Please note that the Chapel remains closed to the public. We are unable to offer an indoor rain space or access to Rockefeller bathrooms as of yet. Please respect our shared outdoor spaces. Keep appropriate distance from others. Wear a face covering when appropriate to do so. Properly dispose of all trash and unwanted items. Wash or sanitize your hands regularly.

The Bells of Summer (a poem for Wylie Crawford, University Carillonneur 1984–2015)

The Bells of Summer are summer itself:
all urgent tasks aside;
moments stayed by sounds sustained
and sent back;
air cleansed of noise by gentle motions
in cups of bronze,
the lightness of being conveyed
in rhythms of measured stress, without strain;
the wily musician of struck bells,
master and foreman of their perfection,
modestly out of sight through forty-one summers,
comes into sight, and to our right praise.

—Bernard O. Brown, fourth Dean of Rockefeller Chapel