For Whom the Bells Toll: Carillonneurs Come to Lawrence

Top of the Campanile. (Tim Seley)

The bells will be ringing in Lawrence this week. The country’s top carillon players — known as carillonneurs — are coming to Lawrence this week to play the carillon at the University of Kansas. The massive instrument is housed inside the KU Campanile.

By Matthew Algeo, Kansas News Service

LAWRENCE — A carillon is a musical instrument - a set of bells in a tower played by pushing down on levers. They’re some of the largest musical instruments in the world, and there’s only one in Kansas, atop the Campanile, the 120-foot-tall tower on the KU campus in Lawrence. This week beginning June 9, the country’s top carillon players - known as carillonneurs (carol-uh-nors) - are coming to Lawrence to play the KU carillon. KPR’s Matthew Algeo has this preview.

Carillon player Liz Berghout playing the carillon in the Campanile (Tim Seley)

Liz Berghout, the official carillonneur at the University of Kansas, will perform on the KU carillon at 6 pm Tuesday as part of the Carillonneur Guild’s 82nd Annual Congress (June 10-14).

Berghout says the best place to get the full effect of the KU carillon is down the hill, about 200 feet away from the base of the Campanile.

Learn more about the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.

The Campanile on the University of Kansas campus.

This article was used by permission from the Kansas News Service. The Kansas News Service is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.ksnewservice.org.