Articles

By Peter Margasak If you've spent much time on the University of Chicago campus, you've heard the chiming bells of the Rockefeller Chapel carillon carrying across the grounds. I'd been hearing them for years before I learned how impressive the instrument actually is—the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon, installed in 1932 following a two-year casting process, includes 72 bells totaling 100 tons of bronze, controlled by an array of keys and pedals. Its low C bell is the third largest tuned bell in the world. Carillons seem suited to traditional and liturgical music, not least because they're often installed in church towers, but over their 500-year history they've also been used...

By Louis Harris The Rockefeller Chapel will be hosting the Carillon New Music Festival this Friday afternoon/evening and all day Saturday. This festival features the world premieres of 16 works, including several commissioned by the Rockefeller Chapel, which is on the campus of the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. While the carillon bells of the Rockefeller Chapel will be the focus, several of the works include other instruments and several players. One work commissioned by the Chapel, Introduction and Aria, by Geert D’hollander, was written for carillon and trombone. Laura Steenberge’s Red Shift was written for carillon and electronics. A new work by University of Chicago Music School...

By Susie Allen, AB’09 On a Friday afternoon in February, University carillonneur Joey Brink is getting ready to climb 240 of Rockefeller Chapel’s 271 stairs. From a small playing cabin near the top of the tower, he’ll perform David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” on the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon. It’s not the first time he’s rocked Bowie on the instrument’s 72 bells—Brink commemorated the iconic performer’s 2016 death with a recital of his greatest hits. Brink, 29, brings a youthful edge to an instrument with medieval origins. Since his arrival at the University in 2015, the campus soundscape has included Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and Prince’s “Purple Rain,” alongside more...

Carillon New Music Festival Press Release University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel Presents Sixteen World Premières in Festival of New Music for Carillon Friday May 25, 2018, 5 pm to 8 pm, and Saturday May 26, 2018, 10 am to 5:30 pm, at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Festival includes world premières by University of Chicago composers including University Professor Augusta Read Thomas CHICAGO—The University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel presents sixteen world premières of music for carillon in a festival of new music for carillon, the first such festival in Chicago’s history, Friday May 25 and Saturday May 26, 2018. Under the direction of University Carillonneur Joey Brink, himself a...

By Joey Brink The Carillon The carillon is one of the most public of instruments. Situated in bell towers in the heart of public spaces, carillonneurs perform for entire communities. Though all who wander near the tower will hear the music, most will never know who it is playing the instrument. As performers hidden from view, carillonneurs strive to convince audiences that we are not machines playing the same tunes each day; we are real humans capable of expression and dynamic variation with lots of diverse repertoire. Of approximately 600 carillons worldwide, North America is home to 185 such instruments distributed across universities, parks, churches, cities, and even mobile carillons...

By Corey Hall IN THE BEGINNING – JULY 25, 1964, TO be exact – Brazilian samba singer Astrud Gilberto and saxophonist Stan Getz brought “The Girl from Ipanema” to life, and the world watched in wonder. This highly-respected performance, from an album that also featured guitarist Joao Gilberto (Astrud’s husband), has since been covered by Herb Alpert, Amy Winehouse, and Lou Rawls, among several others. At the 2017 Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Joey Brink climbed the 271 stairs leading up to the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel’s tower, sat down in front of a 100-ton instrument called the carillon, and opened his “Bell Jazz” performance with this Antonio Carlos Jobim composition. As...

By Brooke Nagler Rockefeller Chapel has been anointed, and not in the typical sense: There were no denominational ceremonies, no baptisms. No priest was present. Instead, what descended over the chapel was of a different profundity. On Saturday night, the music of two ethereal voices filled the depths of the space, echoes reverberating through its cavernous hall. The source of it all: the Canadian identical twin duo known as Tegan and Sara. The concert, which sold out online within five minutes of the ticket release, was a stop on The Con X: Tour, a series marking the 10th anniversary of their album The Con. The duo commemorated the album by playing it in its entirety. Returning to older...

Airing on Sunday, August 27, 2017, University Organist Thomas Weisflog showcased the grand E.M. Skinner organ to host of S.E.E. Chicago's Dawn Jackson Blatner, presented by WGN. The E.M. Skinner organ is one of the finest 20th century romantic organs built in the USA and is one of the largest organs in the Midwest. Tea & Pipes is a great opportunity for you to listen to the earth shattering music. Recitals are held every Tuesday starting September 26, 4:30 pm. In the meantime, visit the Chapel anytime to see and hear the wood, tin and metal pipes play the sounds of traditional instruments. Visit S.E.E. Chicago's website to view the interview between Thomas Weisflog and Dawn Jackson...

CHI: Music of Augusta Read Thomas featuring Spektral Quartet and Third Coast Percussion Chicago, Illinois—On Saturday, April 29, 7:30 pm, the University of Chicago’s soaring Rockefeller Chapel welcomes celebrated composer Augusta Read Thomas at a concert dedicated entirely to her music, with 2017 Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion and Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet. The concert, A Triptych: Earth, Moon, Peace, will feature three major works: the world première of Thomas’ new CHI for string quartet, written for Spektral Quartet; Resounding Earth – the profound and mystical sound of over three hundred bells – written for Third Coast Percussion, here performed for the first time in the...

Two seasons after the Chicago Chorale performed Bach’s more famous setting in the same venue, Rockefeller Chapel’s Quire and Place series programmed the Matthäuspassion by Heinrich Schütz. As explained in his program note, music director James Kallembach smartly split the Passion into five parts, pairing the first four with a corresponding motet from Francis Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence and the last with Gerald Finzi’s effusive Lo the full, final sacrifice. In a concert setting, Schütz’s lesser-heard work can be tough to sit through; the score is mostly recitative and completely unaccompanied, though University organist Thomas Weisflog included occasional brief...