Labor Day Carillon Concert in Berea

The final concert in Berea’s 2006 Summer Carillon Series will be given on Monday, Sept. 4 (Labor Day) at 8 pm. Berea College Carillonneur John Courter will be performing on the 56-bell carillon in Draper Tower. Seating in the College Quadrangle will be provided, and a video monitor will allow persons at ground level to view the player in action. Admission is free and all are invited to attend.Courter’s program will include original carillon pieces by composers from Holland, Belgium, Australia and America, folksongs from Japan and Scotland, and arrangements of a Mozart Minuet and a Waltz from Shostakovich’s Suite for Jazz Orchestra. Also on the program is Courter’s “In Memoriam-September 11, 2001.” The program will last about one hour.

In mid-July, Courter traveled to Gdansk, Poland to give a lecture and a recital at the Fifteenth World Carillon Federation Congress. During the Congress, the Executive Board and Committee of Delegates voted to accept a new World-Standard Carillon Keyboard which is based on Berea’s new keyboard installed in 2000. There are already eleven examples of this keyboard installed in Europe and America. Originally known as the “Berea Keyboard,” it is now known as the “WCF Keyboard 2006.”

Courter began playing the carillon as a student at Michigan State University, and later attended the Netherlands Carillon School, attaining both the Practical and Performing Artist Diplomas. He has performed at Carillon Festivals in Springfield, IL, Canberra, Australia, and at Bok Tower in Florida, where he was Composer-in-Residence in the Spring of 2004. His compositions are played in all countries that have a carillon culture.