Weekly Summer Carillon Series begins July 8

The 2022 Carillon Summer Concert Series at Westminster College will welcome four guest carillonneurs to perform on the College’s 42-bell Duff-Armington Memorial Carillon throughout the month of July.

The series will open on Friday, July 8, with a performance by Elisa Tersigni, who began playing the carillon only seven years ago while completing her doctoral degree at the University of Toronto. Currently studying with noted carillonneur Eddy Marien at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium, she has performed in Belgium, the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Japan. In 2020, she was elected as a carillon member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.

Wade FitzGerald will be the featured carillonneur on Friday, July 15. FitzGerald began studying the carillon in 2016 with Dr. Laura Ellis at the University of Florida, where he earned degrees in music and biology. He was inducted into the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 2019, and in 2020 FitzGerald completed a fellowship and served as resident carillonneur at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Fla., where he studied with Geert D’hollander. In August, he will begin studying for his master’s in organ performance at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he will also serve as the associate carillon instructor. He currently resides near Philadelphia and regularly plays the carillon at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

Polish carillonneur Anna Kasprzycka will perform on Friday, July 22. A carillonneur of the 17th century Parrochialkirche in Berlin, she is noted for performing world premieres of music by contemporary performers. She has performed throughout Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Great Britain, France, the United States, Israel, Spain and Russia. In 2020, her composition “Sound of Kaunas” was premiered during Kaunas International Carillon Music Festival in Lithuania. In 2017 she completed a fellowship at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Fla., pursuing research on the first Polish compositions for carillon.  In 2014 she was the first Polish carillonist to graduate summa cum laude from the Royal Carillon School Jef Denyn in Mechelen, Belgium.

Dr. Andrea McCrady will be the final featured carillonneur on Friday, July 29. Since 2008, McCrady has served as Dominion Carillonneur of the Peace Tower Carillon, which she plays every weekday. She began playing the carillon in 1971 as an undergraduate at Trinity College. While studying in Europe on a post-graduate fellowship, she studied at carillon schools in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. While attending medical school at McGill University in Montreal, she was carillonneur at St. Joseph’s Oratory, followed by her hospital residency in Toronto, where she played at the University of Toronto and the Canadian National Exhibition. From 1990-2008, she coordinated the carillon program at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Spokane, Wash., where she also practiced family medicine. In 2008, she retired from medicine to continue her study of the carillon. She received a Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from the University of Denver in 2008. She is an adjunct professor in carillon studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. She has served for many years on the board of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA), and as its president from 1988-89. McCrady has co-chaired the GCNA Ronald Barnes Memorial Grant Fund and chair the Heritage Music Committee. She served as secretary of the World Carillon Federation (WCF) and has performed for the 1996, 2002, 2014 and 2021 WCF congresses.

All concerts begin at noon and are free and open to the public. Seating is available on the quad outside of Old Main. Audience members are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and lunch to enjoy during the concerts. In the event of inclement weather, seating will be available in Wallace Memorial Chapel.

One of only 55 college carillons nationwide, Westminster’s bells—42 in all—are an integral part of campus life. In addition to ringing the “Westminster Chime” every quarter hour throughout the day, the carillon is regularly played by Paula Kubik, Westminster organist.

For more information about the concert series, contact Diane Gabriel in the Office of Faith and Spirituality at gabriedl@westminster.edu or 724-946-7117. To learn more about the Duff-Armington Memorial Carillon, click here.

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