Westminster’s weekly carillon concerts begin July 12

The 2024 Carillon Summer Concert Series at Westminster College will host four guest carillonneurs to perform on the College’s 42-bell Duff-Armington Memorial Carillon on select Friday afternoons in July and August.

The concert series will begin at noon on Friday, July 12, with a performance by Jennifer Lory-Moran, who has served as adviser for the Cornell University Chimes program in Ithaca, N.Y., since 2000. For more than 30 years, Lory-Moran has played Cornell’s 21-bell chime, one of the largest and most frequently played chimes in the world.  She began studying the carillon in 2012 through the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium. She became a carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) in June 2024. In addition to regularly playing concerts on the chime at Cornell, Lory-Moran has performed on the carillons at the University of Rochester and Alfred University.

Abby Pan will continue the series with her performance at noon on Friday, July 19. Pan is a graduate of the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium, and a GCNA carillonneur member. She began her carillon studies at Wellesley College, where she served as president of its Guild of Carillonneurs from 2021 to 2022. Outside of the carillon, she studied vocal jazz and graduated with a degree in English and physics. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in physics at Stanford University, where she plays the carillon at Hoover Tower.

Joseph Min, a recent Royal Carillon School graduate, will perform on Friday, July 26.  He occasionally plays the carillon at Riverside Church and is a Riverside Ringers handbell group member. He hopes his work in acoustics and design will further the architecture and carillon cultures. In the past, he has performed on both piano and carillon for several events including Singing Bronze in Chicago and the inauguration of the president of the University of Chicago in 2021. He currently attends the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).

Dr. Andrea McCrady, Dominion Carillonneur of the Peace Tower Carillon of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, Canada, will be the final featured carillonneur on Friday, Aug. 2. Appointed Dominion Carillonneur in 2008, McCrady began playing the carillon in 1971 at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. While in Europe on a post-graduate fellowship, she studied at carillon schools in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. During medical school at McGill University in Montreal, she served as carillonneur at St. Joseph’s Oratory. During her hospital residency in Toronto, 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 after receiving her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Denver. She joined the faculty of Carleton University in Ottawa in 2012 as instructor in the first carillon studies program in Canada. McCrady served for many years on the GCNA board and as its president from 1988 to 1989. She has co-chaired the GCNA Ronald Barnes Memorial Grant Fund and the Heritage Music Committee. She served as secretary of the World Carillon Federation (WCF) and has given presentations or recitals for several WCF congresses.

One of only 55 college carillons nationwide, Westminster’s bells—42 in all—are an integral part of campus life and ring the “Westminster Chime” every quarter hour throughout the day.

All performances begin at noon on the Quad near Westminster’s Old Main building.  They are free and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to bring chairs, blankets and lunch to the performances. Concerts will be held in the Wallace Memorial Chapel if inclement weather occurs.

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, please visit duffarmingtonmemorialcarillon.weebly.com.

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