By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
For the past 19 years, retired GVSU carillonneur Julianne Vanden Wyngaard has climbed the 112 steps of the Beckering Family Carillon Tower for a special Christmas performance — a performance that cannot be stopped by the current COVID pandemic.
Since it has always been a drive-up concert, the program does not have to make any changes to meet the 2020 gathering guidelines. So the free Christmas Eve Carillon Concert will take place at 9:30 p.m. on the Grand Valley State University’s Pew Grand Rapids Campus, 401 W. Fulton St.
Vanden Wyngaard said it was important to her to continue the tradition, which is celebrating a 20th anniversary. She performs from the playing cabin of the carillon, with the windows of the bell tower’s belfry open on all sides, knowing an audience that she doesn’t see has gathered in vehicles parked nearby. “Silent Night” always closes the concert.
“Then they just toot their horns and drift off into the darkness,” Vanden Wyngaard said.
She said the 9:30 p.m. concert is timed so that people with either evening or midnight services can still stop by to enjoy the music.
The concert is free and open to the public. Find more information here.
Constructed in 2000, the Beckering Family Carillon Tower is 151-foot carillon-clock tower that features 48 bronze-casted carillon bells by famed French foundry Fonderie Paccard, which has casted more than 120,000 bells that are throughout the world.
