Carillon and Organ Take Center Stage at Ann Arbor Summer Festival

June 2006

(Ann Arbor, MI).  A returning tradition, a unique new work, an unprecedented pairing and an annual favorite series hallmark this summer’s collaboration between the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

A tradition returns

The sounds of pealing bells will ring out over Ingalls Mall as carillon concerts return to the Charles Baird Carillon in the Burton Memorial Tower.  As a part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival's Top of the Park festivities, which this year takes place in front of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies on Washington Street, carillonneurs will present concerts of works written and arranged for carillon featuring new music and old favorites on Sunday, June 18 and Sunday, July 2 at 7:45 PM.

A unique new work

In celebration of Top of the Park’s new location, choreographer Jessica Fogel will create a new work for six dancers in and around the fountain in Ingalls Mall, set to carillon music by Stephen Rush. A campus landmark, the fountain sculpture, by Carl Milles, was acquired by the UM in 1940, and is entitled "Sunday Morning in Deep Waters."  It depicts Triton on a holiday outing with his sons. Building upon the festive qualities of the fountain sculpture and the graphic landscape of the mall, the dance celebrates a sense of summer play.   The music, entitled "Sonata for Carillon" was written by Stephen Rush for Jeffrey Bossin, the carillonneur of the famous Tiergarten in Berlin, Germany. It was premiered in Berlin in September 2005.  The Sonata is in three movements (Fast/Slow/Fast) and the last movement is a variation on the famous Southern Harmony hymn, "Holy Manna". Fogel and Rush are longtime faculty members of the UM Department of Dance, and have collaborated on several works in the past.  The carillon music will be played live for the dance. The 15-minute dance will be performed on Tuesday June 20, Sunday, June 25, and Monday, June 26 at 7:45 PM.

An unprecedented pairing

The Michigan Theater joins the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in presenting a world premiere of a silent movie accompanied by not an organ, but a carillon.  Carillonneur Steven Ball, a specialist in the rare art of live silent film accompaniment, will provide the soundtrack for the 1923 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The al fresco screening is the final movie showing at Top of the Park on Sunday, July 9 at 10:00 PM. 

“This remarkable musical and cinemagraphic world-first marks both the conclusion of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and the beginning of the University of Michigan International Summer Carillon Festival,” said Ball.  The presentation is made possible through a unique collaboration by community arts organizations.”  The partnership merges the Summer Festival’s free outdoor cinema with the University of Michigan’s carillon series and the Michigan Theater's silent film program.

One of the first film adaptations of Victor Hugo's novel about Quasimodo's love for Esmeralda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame stars legendary actor Lon Chaney as the disfigured bell-ringer, and is considered to be one of the most successful silent films ever. The sheer spectacle of production and Chaney's poignant, star-making performance are unforgettable in this rarely screened black and white classic.

An annual favorite

Coordinated by University Organist Marilyn Mason, the Organ Series features four distinct concerts with something for everyone.  UM alum soprano Brenda Wimberly joins Marilyn Mason on a concert of music for voice and organ on Sunday, June 18.   Violinst Tapani Yrjola and UM faculty Michele Johns join forces on Sunday, June 25 for a concert of music for violin and organ.  University Organist Marilyn Mason will present a solo concert of patriotic favorites on Sunday, July 2.  The series concludes with a performance by UM alum Dr. Evelyn Lim, the first Dean of the Singapore chapter of the American Guild of Organists, on Sunday, July 9.  All concerts are presented at 4:00 PM in the Blanche Anderson Moore Hall in the E.V. Moore Building on North Campus.  Tickets required.