Please meet and greet the performing artist on the front steps of the Duane G. Meyer Library immediately following the performance. The artist welcomes the opportunity to meet you and answer your questions! All Concerts began at 7:00 pm.

Karel Keldermans - April 15

Springfield, Illinois

Karel Kedermans, one of the pre-eminent carillonneurs in North America, performs as the first guest carillonneur during the 10th Anniversary of the Jane A. Meyer Carillon Concert Series.

For more than 30 years, Keldermans has served as the full-time carillonneur for the Springfield, Ill., Park District, where he is the director of the International Carillon Festival. He has composed a dozen original works for carillon, arranged numerous pieces for the instrument and released six solo carillon CDs. He recorded a duet CD with Belgian guitarist Wim Brioen. Keldermans is past president of the Guild of Carillonneurs Board of Directors, North America.

In 1998, he and his wife, Linda, were honored with the Berkeley Medal for “Distinguished Service to the Carillon.” They are co-authors of Carillon: The evolution of a concert instrument, which received critical acclaim both in the U.S. and abroad. Karel and Linda are the former owners/publishers of American Carillon Music Editions (ACME), the largest publishing house of carillon music in the world.

Keldermans studied with Piet van den Broek at the Royal Carillon School, in Mechelen, Belgium, from which he was graduated “with Great Distinction.” He studied independently at the Dutch Carillon School, in Amersfoort with Peter Bakker. Keldermans holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois in Carillon Performance and Campanology .

Sharon Hettinger - May 15

Lawrence, Kansas

Sharon Hettinger is director of music and organist at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Mo. She has performed recitals throughout the Midwest, including the
International Carillon Festival in Springfield, Ill.

Hettinger is a member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) and active in the American Guild of Organists (AGO) for both Kansas City and Topeka AGO chapters. She is the author of American Organ Music of the Twentieth Century: An Annotated Bibliography of Composers. She also wrote a chapter in a forthcoming textbook on 20th Century composers for the organ. Hettinger writes reviews for the organ journal Diapason and composes Psalm settings for her choirs to sing.

A native of Niles, Mich., Hettinger received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Kansas. Her Bachelor of Music degree is from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J. She began carillon study under the tutelage of world-renown carillonneur Bert Gerken, at the University of Kansas, where she continues to play. Recent coaching is with Karel Keldermans in Springfield, Ill.

Jonathan Casady - June 12

Gainesville, Florida

Jonathan Casady returns to his alma mater, where he graduated in 2010 with a degree in organ performance. Casady is a graduate assistant in the carillon department
at the University of Florida, where he is pursuing a Master of Music degree in sacred music.

Casady is also the organ scholar at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Gainesville, where in addition to service playing, he accompanies and conducts the Royal School of Church Music in America affiliated choir. He also works with the children choristers and hand-bell choir. Casady studied organ and carillon with Jeremy Chesman and Laura Ellis.

Helen Hofmeister Hawley - July 10

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Helen Hofmeister Hawley is the minister of music at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., where she directs the 83-voice adult choir, high school, middle school and children’s choirs, string and wind ensembles and is the principal organist.

She is an active member of the American Guild of Organists, of which she serves on the Grand Rapids Chapter executive board. She holds membership in the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. Hawley has performed carillon recitals in more than a dozen states in the U.S., as well as in Europe, Belgium and the Netherlands.

She holds both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance from the University of Kansas. She received the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst scholarship to perform post-graduate study in Cologne, Germany. She received carillon instruction at the University of Kansas as a student of Albert Gerken.

Laura Ellis - August 14

Gainesville, Florida

Laura Ellis is an associate professor in the School of Music at the University of Florida, where she teaches sacred music courses and applied lessons in undergraduate and graduate organ, harpsichord and carillon.

In addition to her carillon performances on the University of Florida campus, Ellis has played carillon recitals throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. A member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, Ellis serves on organization’s board of directors. She also is active in the American Guild of Organists.

Ellis is a graduate of Luther College and holds a Master of Music degree in church music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the University of Kansas. While in residence at the University of Kansas, she studied carillon with Albert Gerken. Prior to her Florida appointment, Ellis served as professor of music at McMurry University and held the position of parish organist at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest in Abilene, Texas. Ellis began her teaching career at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Ark.

Janet Tebbel - September 11

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Janet Tebbel is carillonneur for the First United Methodist Church of Germantown and the Miraculous Medal Shrine, two carillons in the historic Germantown section of Philadelphia. She has played recitals throughout North America and Europe and has been a member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America for more than three decades, holding various leadership positions.

Tebbel began her carillon studies with R. Hudson Ladd at the University of Michigan and continued to play at the University of Rochester, New York, while earning a master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music. With a grant from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation, she spent a year at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium, studying with Piet van den Broek, and earned a final diploma from the school. Tebbel is a music educator with a focus on early childhood and elementary students.

Jeremy Chesman - October 9 and 29

Missouri State University

Jeremy Chesman’s performances have been broadcast in the United States, the Netherlands and Japan. He has performed in France, Belgium and Portugal, where he played a recital of American music at the National Palace in Mafra on the European Union’s day of mourning for the events of September 11. Chesman currently serves as University carillonist and associate professor of music at Missouri State University.

Chesman studied carillon with Margo Halsted and Todd Fair at the University of Michigan, where he was the first person to earn a Master of Music degree in Carillon Performance. As a fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, he studied carillon with Eddy Mariën and composition with Geert D’Hollander at the Royal Carillon School of Belgium, where he earned a Final Diploma with Distinction.