Term ending 2025 | Term ending 2026 | Term ending 2027 |
Officers
- President: Scott Hummel
- Vice-President: Janet Tebbel
- Treasurer: Wesley Arai
- Assistant Treasurer: David Hunsberger
- Corresponding Secretary: Carson Landry
- Recording Secretary: Caroline Poon
Election and appointment
The Board of Directors has 9 members—each tasked with overseeing both the long-term direction and day-to-day operations of the GCNA. A new class of Directors is elected annually by the membership, and the Board appoints new Officers following each election. The President and Vice-President are always Directors. The Board delegates its work to committees, and the President typically appoints their members. Most of the work at the GCNA is carried out by the committees.
Bios
Wesley Arai — Director, Treasurer Wesley Arai has served on the Board of the GCNA since 2019 and currently serves as the organization's Treasurer. He is the University Carillonist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he performs regularly on the 61-bell Storke Tower carillon and maintains an active teaching studio. Wesley studied carillon with Jeff Davis at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received BA degrees in mathematics and statistics with a minor in music. He received an MA degree in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and subsequently became a Carillonneur member of the GCNA. An active recitalist, Wesley has performed extensively across the United States and abroad. In addition to the carillon, he has studied piano, trombone, and voice. Wesley's day job is as an actuary for a company in Los Angeles. |
Laura Ellis — Director Laura Ellis is Associate School Director and Professor in the School of Music at the University of Florida where she teaches carillon, organ, and courses in sacred music. A graduate of Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), she holds the MM degree in church music and the DMA in organ performance from the University of Kansas. While in residence at KU, she studied carillon with Albert Gerken. A carillonneur member of the GCNA, Ellis has performed throughout the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, and Australia. Her recording Jubilant Bells: Carillon Music of Alice Gomez (published by Raven Compact Discs) was partially funded by the GCNA's Ronald Barnes Memorial Grant. For more details about the carillon program at the University of Florida, please visit www.arts.ufl.edu/carillon. |
Jim Fackenthal — Director 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 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 and performs carillon recitals throughout the United States. Additionally, he is the carillonneur at St. Chrysostom's Church in Chicago and serves 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, Associate Carillonneur Exam Committee chair, and co-editor of the newsletter Carillon News. |
Scott R. Hummel — Director, President Scott R. Hummel is a composer and musician from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts in music and a Bachelor of Music in audio and music production from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. He has performance experience in keyboard instruments, choral music, and percussion. His introduction to the carillon came through listening to the 62-bell instrument housed in the Chimes Tower at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. In addition to carillon, Scott has written for various other mediums, including choir, pipe organ, and percussion. Scott also serves as an instructor for the North American Carillon School where he teaches music theory. His involvement in the music industry extends beyond composition and performance to audio engineering and lighting design. Scott continues to compose and arrange new works for carillon. |
David Hunsberger — Assistant Treasurer 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. |
Claire Janezic — Director Claire Janezic first started playing carillon at the University of Rochester, graduating in 2022 with a music and history double-major and an audio and music engineering minor. As a student, Claire enjoyed playing mbira, keyboards, and performing in two gamelan ensembles. She spent her final year at the University of Rochester teaching carillon, organizing a weekly carillon concert series, and playing concerts in the United States. In 2021, Claire passed the GCNA’s Carillonneur Examination. Later that year, she was awarded a grant from the GCNA to premiere an original carillon composition. Claire continued her carillon education at the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn” in Mechelen, Belgium in 2022-2023 through a Fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She graduated summa cum laude in June 2023, studying under Koen Van Assche. In August 2023, Claire performed during the World Carillon Congress and played as part of the Festival of Old Music in Utrecht (NL). She has played concerts in the United States, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Claire continued her carillon study last year with Geert D’hollander as the Blanchard Carillon Fellow at Bok Tower Gardens in Florida. |
Michelle S. Lam — Director Michelle S. Lam is an Associate Carillonneur at the Netherlands Carillon in Arlington, VA, and serves as co-chair of the GCNA Finance Committee. She studied carillon at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan, and became the resident carillonist at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church in the Detroit metro area from 2019 to 2022. Dr. Lam attained Carillonneur status from the GCNA in 2022. Her recitals and work in the carillon community focus on highlighting people of color, women, and lesser played works. Together with Dr. Elisa Tersigni, she received a Barnes Grant in 2020 to study the evolution of carillon culture. Outside of carillon, she graduated with her economics PhD in 2023 and works as an antitrust economist in Washington. Committed to radical transparency, making data-driven decisions, and empowering people to institute change, Dr. Lam's inbox at msll@umich.edu is always open for comments, suggestions, and queries. |
Carson Landry — Corresponding Secretary Carson Landry is University Carillonist at the University of Rochester (New York). Previously, he was carillonist of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church in Michigan and held fellowships at Bok Tower Gardens (FL) and the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon (IL). He holds a master's degree in carillon performance from the University of Michigan, a diploma from the Royal Carillon School in Belgium, and a BA in music studies from Principia College. Passionate about using bells for social good, he specializes in performing works by diverse composers and popular artists. Carson also serves the GCNA as chair of the Professionalism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. |
Tiffany Ng — Director Tiffany Ng is University Carillonist and Chair of the Organ Department at the University of Michigan. Her concert career spans festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. She has premiered over 60 acoustic and electroacoustic pieces, championed the work of women composers, and pioneered models for interactive "crowdsourced" and environmental-data-driven carillon performances. Her score publications include arrangements of music by Florence Price and Clara Schumann as well as Motown, soul, R&B, and civil rights movement songs. Her scholarly publications include www.CarillonWomen.org and two bibliographies available in the GCNA Bulletin: "Annotated Bibliography of African American Carillon Music," and "International Bibliography of Carillon Music by Women, Transgender, and Nonbinary Composers." Dr. Ng is co-chair of the Johan Franco Composition Committee and chair of the Archives Committee. |
Caroline Poon — Recording Secretary Caroline Poon has served as Recording Secretary since 2014 and as a Director from 2019 to 2022. She holds a BA from Wellesley College, double majoring in music and in cognitive and linguistic sciences with a concentration in philosophy. She holds an MSI in information policy and an MMus in carillon performance from the University of Michigan. She studied at the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn" in Mechelen in the winter of 2015. In her professional life, she has taught undergraduate biology and 'monged cheeses, cured meats, and bread. She has also worked in library services at public and university music libraries. She grew up in Asia, Europe, and both coasts of the United States, but now lives in Chicago with her husband. |
Tin-Shi Tam — Director A celebrated artist on carillon and organ, Tin-Shi Tam has given recitals in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, and the United States. She was a featured carillon recitalist at the Festival International de Carillon en Côte d'Or in France, the International Carillon Festival at Bok Tower Gardens in Florida, and the Congresses of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. In 2008, Tam represented the GCNA to perform at the World Carillon Federation Congress in Groningen, Netherlands. As an active clinician, Tam has given master classes, lectures and education programs extensively. A selection of her carillon arrangements of Scriabin's music was published by Koninklijke Nederlandse Klokkenspel-Vereniging, and her carillon compact disk The Bells of Iowa State was released in 2004. At present, she is the Charles T. & Ivadelle Cobb Cownie Professor of Music (the university carillonneur) and the chair of the keyboard division at Iowa State University. |
Janet Tebbel — Director, Vice-President Janet Tebbel has a rich career as an early elementary music educator, organist and carillonneur. After completing degree programs at University of Michigan and Eastman School of Music, and earning a final diploma at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, she has served as carillonneur at the First United Methodist Church in Germantown, Philadelphia, and more recently at the nearby Miraculous Medal Shrine. Her community outreach included thrice-weekly "quarantine recitals" in 2020, and she is now tolling the bourdon and playing the Ukrainian national anthem every Sunday. Tebbel is active as solo carillon recitalist and with the Treblemakers with Lisa Lonie. She has performed throughout North America and Europe, for the GCNA and WCF congresses. Along with Robin Austin and Lisa Lonie, she received three Barnes grants to work in the archives at Bok Tower, cataloguing the papers of Arthur Bigelow and Ronald Barnes. |
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