6-10-04
BEHREND ORGAN AND CARILLON SERIES
FEATURES UNIQUE TALENT
Gijsbert Kok and Marcel Siebers of The Netherlands and Elizabeth Berghout of Kansas will each perform at Penn State Behrend's Organ and Carillon Concert Series this July. What's unique about each of these three musicians is that they play both organ and carillon, exhibiting multiple talents on two instruments that require a very special touch.
The three-part Organ and Carillon Concert
Series beginning Friday, July 9, at 7:00 p.m. The second concert will
take place Friday, July 16, and a third on Friday, July 23. All three
concerts take place at the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel at Penn
State Behrend. The organ portion of each concert will begin at 7:00
p.m. (seating in the chapel) and the Carillon portion will begin at
7:45 p.m. (bring a lawn chair or blanket for seating on the grounds).
The concerts, sponsored by the Penn State Behrend Student Activity Fee
and the Arts Council of Erie, are free and open to the public.
Gijsbert Kok, who plays on July 9, studied organ at the Royal
Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands, where he was awarded
diplomas in organ and church music in 1988. He has taken master
classes with organists Marie-Claire Alain, Naji Hakim, Ton Koopman,
and others. He studied carillon with Bernard Winsemius at the Dutch
Carillon School in Amersfoort, receiving a concert diploma and
improvisation degree in 1994, and has won prizes at carillon contests
in Tilburg, Groningen and Enkhuizen. His published compositions are
for carillon, organ, and choir.
Kok is organist of the Domkerk in De Lier and the American Protestant
Church in The Hague. He is carilloneur of the cities of Weesp,
Voorschoten, and Zoetermeer. He gives regular organ and carillon
recitals both in Holland and abroad. Kok's repertoire contains music
from 1600 to the present, including classical pieces, improvisation,
and lighter selections.
Elizabeth Berghout, who will play on Friday, July 16, is carillonneur
for the University of Kansas. Berghout has a bachelor of music degree
in organ performance and pedagogy from Brigham Young University, and
she now has earned a doctorate in organ performance from BYU. She
learned to play the carillon from Albert Gerken, university
carilloneur from 1963 to 2000.
Berghout plays the carillon with the sides of her fists. Although the
instrument is set up like a keyboard, the player must use more
strength when hitting it. The purely mechanical instrument has strings
attached to each bell, and the larger bells take more force to play,
thus the fists. Berghout plays concerts at the Campanile at the
University of Kansas throughout the school year.
Marcel Siebers will perform on Friday, July 23. Siebers holds a
master's degree in piano from the Arnhem Conservatory as well as
Practical Diploma and a Performing Artist Diploma from the Netherlands
Carillon School in Amersfoort. His teacher was Arie Abbenes.
Siebers has played many carillon recitals in the United States and
Europe. He serves as a Municipal Carillonneur at St. Martin Church in
Venlo and at City Hall tower in Cuijk. He is also carillonneur of the
Millennium Carillon of the Aldegundis Church in Emmerich, Germany.
Siebers is an active composer for carillon and for other musical
media. His Fantasy on an Old French Chanson (tant que vivrai) was
awarded Second Prize in a composition competition held in 1994 by the
French Guild of Carillonneurs. His Prelude con Fughetta received
second prize in the Johan Franco Composition Competition in 1996. His
compositions are written in the so-called "New Dutch" romantic style,
reflecting influences of Flemish romantic carillon music, and
incorporating a broad harmonic vocabulary.
Penn State Behrend is located at 5091 Station Road in Harborcreek. For
more information about the Smith Chapel Organ and Carillon Concert
Series, call 814-898-6609.
Contact:
Loretta Brandon
814-898-6063 (O)
E-mail: lzb6@psu.edu