Carillonneur Exam

Carolyn Bolden, from Denver Colorado, began studying piano as a child, and she started accompanying for Sunday School singing while still in elementary school. When she was in high school, a family donated a new pipe organ to the church her family attended, and she began organ lessons. She studied Music Education at the University of Minnesota where her major instrument was the organ. After teaching vocal music for two years in Upsala, Minnesota, Carolyn moved to Denver where she has been actively involved in various church music programs in the Denver area, as organist, director of music, and participant. Her primary source of employment for more than 30 years was in the Information Technology department at the University of Denver. During her time in Minneapolis, Carolyn was introduced to the carillon in Rochester, Minnesota, by a high school friend. Years later (when she and her husband became "empty nesters"), she began studying carillon in 2010 at the University of Denver with Carol Jickling Lens, the University Carillonneur. She passed the Associate Carillonneur Exam in 2013 and in June 2014 achieved GCNA carillonneur status. She has played recitals in Denver, and also in Minnesota, Missouri, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Carolyn retired from her IT position at the University of Denver in 2019, and now spends a good deal of time with her 1-year-old puppy and her 1-year-old granddaughter. She continues to play as often as she can.

Keiran Cantilina hails from Cleveland, Ohio. He was introduced to bell instruments during his university years, where he was a player of Cornell University's historic twenty-one-bell chime. During his graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, Keiran began studying the carillon with Dave Johnson at the House of Hope carillon in St. Paul. In 2018–2019, he studied carillon in Belgium with Koen Van Assche on a scholarship from the Belgian American Education Foundation. He graduated from the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen and was a finalist in the Queen Fabiola International Carillon Competition held in 2019. Keiran is a Carillonneur Member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America and he serves as a member of the board of directors of the Friends of the McGaffin Carillon in Cleveland. He is also the assistant carillonist at Church of the Covenant. When not playing carillon, Keiran works as a principal research engineer at the Cleveland Clinic.

Jim Fackenthal began carillon studies at The University of Rochester with David Caldwell in the mid 1980s, then passed the carillonneur's exam in Ottawa in 1986. He played the two carillons in Bloomington, Indiana, for seven years, then moved to Chicago in 1993, where he became the assistant/associate carillonneur at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. He is now a cancer researcher and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Benedictine University, performs carillon recitals throughout the United States, serves as Carillonneur at St. Chrysostom's Church in Chicago, and is on the carillon performance team for the Naperville Park District. As a member of the GCNA, Fackenthal has served in several capacities, including examination juror, board member, and co-editor of the newsletter Carillon News.

A native of Tampa, Florida, Wade FitzGerald started piano lessons at age five. He enrolled at the University of Florida in 2015 and began studying the carillon with Dr. Laura Ellis the following year. In June 2019, FitzGerald was inducted into the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America and graduated from UF shortly thereafter with a B.M. in piano and a B.S. in biology. FitzGerald then served for five months as Blanchard Carillon Fellow at Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida, in 2020. In 2021, FitzGerald moved to Pennsylvania, where he began playing the carillon and studying organ with Jeffrey Brillhart at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. Most recently, FitzGerald earned his Master of Music in Organ Performance in May 2024 at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with Drs. Christopher Young and Janette Fishell. During his time there, he also served as the Associate Instructor of Carillon and University Carillonneur. He now lives in Tampa, Florida, where he sings with the Tampa Oratorio Singers and has started playing the carillon at Church of the Ascension in Clearwater. In his free time, FitzGerald enjoys hiking, nature photography, reading (particularly cosmic horror), catching snakes, and learning languages. (FitzGerald serves as an alternate juror for the 2025 examination.) 

Annie Gao is a carillonist and software engineer from the sunny suburbs of Southern California. She first met the carillon in 2017 as a member of the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs, completed her GCNA Carillonneur exam in 2020, and graduated from Yale in 2021 with a combined B.S./M.S. in Computer Science. She then had the tremendous privilege of continuing her carillon studies internationally with Geert D’hollander, Boudewijn Zwart, and Eddy Marien. Along the way, she has been recipient of the Bok Tower Gardens Blanchard Carillon Fellowship, the Belgian American Education Foundation Fellowship, and the Kors Monster Festival Performance Nomination. She has taught carillon performance masterclasses at Bok Tower, Yale, and the University of Florida, and currently chairs the GCNA's Emerging Artists Grant committee. In her free time, Annie enjoys competitive ping pong, puzzles and brainteasers, good reads, and opportunities to explore and improve her fascinatingly bad sense of direction. (Gao serves as an alternate juror for the 2025 examination.) 

Helen Hofmeister received her carillon instruction at the University of Kansas as a student of Albert Gerken. She is a carillonneur member of the GCNA and is a past member of the GCNA Board and the Barnes Scholarship Committee. She has performed carillon recitals in sixteen states, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands, including international festivals in Springfield, Illinois, and at the Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida. She represented the GCNA with a recital at the World Carillon Congress at St. Rombouts in Mechelen, Belgium, and has played GCNA Congress recitals at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, and at Clemson University in South Carolina. Helen holds both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance from the University of Kansas and has done post-graduate study in Cologne, Germany as a recipient of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) scholarship awarded through the Fulbright Committee. She currently serves as Staff Accompanist at Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, Kansas, and Interim Music Associate at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas.

Since 1983, David Hunsberger has been one of the assistant carilloneurs at the University of California, Berkeley, and during the 1999–2000 academic year was Acting University Carilloneur. He studied carillon at the Riverside Church in New York City with James R. Lawson, and at the Rees Carillon in Springfield, Illinois, with Raymond Keldermans. He holds the Berkeley Medal for distinguished service to the carillon. Mr. Hunsberger joined the GCNA in early 1974 and has not missed a congress since. He advanced in 1976 at Trinity UCC, Holland, Pennsylvania. He was Treasurer during 1976–78 and 1996–2019, Recording Secretary during 1978–96, sat on the Board of Directors during 1979–94 and 2010–18, and has been chair of its legal committee since 1992. He has worked on many of its other committees, including Nominations, Examinations, Brochure, Scholarship, and World Federation. He enjoys traveling abroad and cross-country drives. He walks several miles each day along San Francisco Bay with his husband Neil. He does lots of sudoku. He is now owner of his third convertible. He's not much of a cook but likes people who are.