The 2023 Summer Carillon Recital Series will begin as always with a festal flourish on Tuesday, July 4 and continue weekly, this special celebratory summer, for two months on Sundays, July 9 through August 27. The series commemorates the carillon’s original dedication in 1923. Bring a blanket, folding chairs, a basket filled with treats, your friends, and enjoy the music of the bells. The 2023 House of Hope Carillon Series is again supported by a generous grant in memory of Sanford “Sandy” Moss, made at the recommendation of Harold and Grace Kurtz, executors of the Moss estate.

Guest artists from Europe and North America will join HOH Music Associate Tim Short and Carillonneur Dave Johnson. Their performances will feature music of virtually infinite description, ranging in time from 17th Century to present, in mood from serious to comic, in concept from whimsey to magnificent; in tone from popular through spiritual to classical, and in form from transcriptions of every description to original works for the instrument.

From its beginning as a modest, unremarkable, two-octave instrument in November 1923 to today’s magnificent four-octave, 49-bell instrument, the Noyes Memorial Carillon has inspired legions of listeners and brought untold numbers of carillon devotees old and new into its fold.

August 20:  Lyle Anderson is Carillonneur Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although officially retired, he continues to play regularly. Besides carillon study with John Wright Harvey, he is a 1980 graduate of the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort. On Sunday mornings he plays organ alternately at Madison’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Plymouth Congregational Church.

August 27:  Dave Johnson, House of Hope Carillonneur since 1993, will complete the 2023 series. He is active in The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America and has performed recitals throughout the United States. He was an elected member of The Guild’s board of directors from 1999 to 2005, was again elected in 2010, has served on various committees, was its recording secretary for ten years, and in June 2010 was elected its president. Dave received his B.A. from Hamline University, M.A. from Stanford University and Ph.D. in American Intellectual History from the University of Kansas. He is the author of two histories of Hamline, a 150th anniversary history of House of Hope and a 50th anniversary history of Presbyterian Homes and Services of Minnesota. He taught history at Kansas Wesleyan University, the University of Kansas and Pacific Lutheran University.