First carillon concert set for Shafer Tower dedication~April 27

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First carillon concert set for Shafer Tower dedication (4/18/2002)

Margo Halsted will play the university's carillon at the Shafer Tower dedication on April 27. She is a music professor and carilloneur at the University of Michigan.

MUNCIE, Ind. - Margo Halsted, one of the nation's most respected carilloneurs, will introduce live carrillon music to the Ball State University campus during an April 27 dedication ceremony for Shafer Tower.

The public is invited to bring lawn chairs and blankets to the lawn east of McKinley Avenue between Bracken Library and the Architecture Building by 11 a.m. to participate in the dedication of the Shafer Tower and hear the first recital played on the university carillon.

The tower houses a carillon of 48 French-made, custom-cast and individually tuned bells. It is named after Phyllis and Hamer Shafer, members of the College of Business Hall of Fame and benefactors of the university and the Muncie community.

Shafer Tower can be used to play pre-recorded music or music played on an off-site keyboard. For special occasions, such as the dedication, a carilloneur can climb the tower where a keyboard attached to cables is used to strike the bells and produce music.

Halsted is an associate professor of campanology (the art of bell ringing) at the University of Michigan, where she performs regularly on that campus' two carillons.
She has performed in all countries with an active carillon tradition and has been a featured recitalist or speaker for five World Carillon Federation meetings. Halsted has published articles and a book on 18th- and 19th-century carillon manuscripts from Belgium.

Halsted will play several selections including the Ball State alma mater, Toccata for Carillon and a medley from "The Sound of Music."

In addition, John Courter, professor of music, college organist and carillonneur at Berea College, in Berea Ky., will provide a premiere performance of Suite No. 1 for Carillon. Courter was commissioned by the Ball State University Foundation to compose the suite for the dedication ceremony.

For more information about carillons and carilloneurs, visit the Web site of the Guild of Carilloneurs in North America at www.gcna.org.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about the dedication, contact Carol Kosisko, assistant to the vice president for University Advancement, at (765) 285-1633 or ckosisko@bsu.edu.)