Friends, I'm excited to share with you the details of a live-streamed concert that I'll be appearing in this Saturday, February 6th, the day of the arts academies in Mechelen. This yearly event usually includes open houses and in-person performances, but this year it's going online.
My fellow American student Simone and I will both play works by Matthias Vanden Gheyn, the so-called "Bach of the carillon." This year marks his 300th birthday! Vanden Gheyn came from a bellfounding family, and he was an active composer and performer himself. His 10 preludes for carillon were pioneering works at the time, partially because they took harmonic advantage of the bells' unique overtone structure, and they remain staples of the carillon repertoire to this day.
He worked in the nearby university town of Leuven, and I've had the good fortune of visiting the church where he played for many years. Although the new carillon has since moved to a different location, I totally geeked out when, on the way up the tower, we passed the very place where he worked for so many years. For his contributions to the city, Matthias earned a statue on the facade of the historical town hall facing the church, and he can still be seen gazing at his carillon to this day.
The concert takes place at 11:30 am local time, but US friends can watch the replay at a more reasonable hour. The YouTube channel can be found here. The program is attached below. We will play on Sint-Rombouts tower in Mechelen. This tower has special significance in the carillon world as the instrument that Jef Denyn (the school's founder and namesake) performed on when he revived interest in carillon music in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Today it houses that historical instrument and a newer grand carillon, which we'll play on.
