The Berkeley Carillon Players

Carillon Staff

Jeff Davis
University Carillonist
John Agraz
David R. Hunsberger
Richard P. Strauss

	Jeff Davis was appointed University Carillonist in July of 2000. He began carillon studies in 1984 with Berkeley's first University Carillonist Ronald Barnes. Prior to his tenure at Berkeley, Davis was University Carillonist at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Davis passed his advancement examination of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 1988 and has served that organization in a variety of offices, currently serving as a judge on the Johan Franco Composition committee. Davis was a Director of the Guild from 1996 to 2001, and President from 1996 to 2000. In addition to service for the GCNA, Davis is also a member of the Committee of Delegates of the World Carillon Federation. Davis has given recitals throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has been a guest artist in the Ann Arbor Festival, the Barcelona International Festival, and has twice represented the Guild in recitals at congresses of the World Carillon Federation. He was awarded the Berkeley Medal for distinguished service to the carillon in 1993. A composer as well as carillonist, Davis studied composition with Don Gillis, Deems Taylor, and Howard Hanson. He attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, and was made a Distinguished Alumnus of Interlochen in 1974. His works, in a wide variety of media, have not been performed nearly enough. To contact Jeff Davis: ucbells@berkeley.edu ********
	David Hunsberger has been one of the assistant carillonists at the University of California (Berkeley) since 1983, and during the 1999-2000 academic year was Acting University Carilloner. He studied carillon at The Riverside Church in New York City with James R. Lawson, and at the Rees Carillon in Springfield IL, with the late Raymond Keldermans. He holds the Berkeley Medal for distinguished service to the carillon. His recital activity has included participation in carillon festivals in Leuvain (Belgium), Utrecht (The Netherlands), Dijon and Chambéry (France), Wellington (New Zealand), Lake Wales FL, Springfield IL, and Berkeley, as well as numerous tours in the United States, Canada, Holland, Belgium, France, and Australia. Mr Hunsberger has been chair of the Legal committee of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America since 1992, and its Treasurer since 1996, a post he also held between 1976 and 1978. He served as Recording Secretary from 1978 to 1996 and as Director from 1979 to 1994. Mr Hunsberger holds the BMus degree cum laude from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea OH, both the MMus and PhD degrees from Washington University in St Louis MO, the JD degree from the University of California (Berkeley), and the Associate certificate of the American Guild of Organists. He has taught music at Washington University and at Webster College in St Louis, and at the Thailand Theological Seminary in Chiang Mai. He has held the post of organist-choirmaster at First Congregational Church of Webster Groves, in St Louis MO, First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara CA, and St John's Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. He is now a contracts analyst at the University of California, and organist-choirmaster at Zion Lutheran Church in Piedmont CA. ********
	John Agraz began his carillon study with Robert Grogan at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC in 1970, while serving in the US Army. On his return to California, he played the Sather Tower chime occasionally from 1972 to 1977, and in 1979 he joined the Berkeley carillon staff. He has played regularly since then, continuing his studies with the late Ronald Barnes of UC Berkeley in the 1980's. In 1993 he was a recipient of the Berkeley Medal for distinguished service to the carillon. Mr. Agraz is also in charge of the maintenance of the Berkeley carillon and practice instruments. A carillonneur member of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America since 1988, he has served on its Board of Directors and as a juror on its Examination Committee. Mr. Agraz is currently employed as a clinical laboratory scientist the HLA & Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at the Children's Hospital & Research Center in Oakland
	Richard P. Strauss studied carillon with Ronald Barnes at the Washington (DC) National Cathedral. He was Cathedral Carillonneur at the Washington National Cathedral from 1976-84 and Carillonneur at the Albany (NY) City Hall from 1987-91. Strauss designed and built carillon keyboards for Central Christian Church, San Antonio TX, in 1983, and for University of California Berkeley, in 1984. The same design was built by others for Albany City Hall in 1986, the Bok Tower in 1987, St. Stephen's Church, Cohasset MA, in 1989, and Duke University Chapel in 1992. In 2000, for the Verdin Company in Cincinnati OH, Strauss designed the "Keyboard 2000" to rationalize European and American dimension standards. Keyboard 2000 was built by Verdin Company for Berea (KY) College in 2000, and for the Thomas Rees Carillon, Springfield IL, in 2001. In 2006 the basic dimensions of Keyboard 2000 were adopted by the World Carillon Federation for the WCF's "Keyboard 2006." Strauss continues working as a consultant, designer, and technician. He was awarded the Berkeley Medal in 1983.

Associate Carillonists

Wesley Arai began studying carillon with Jeff Davis in 2004. He received B.A. degrees in Mathematics and Statistics with a minor in Music from the University of California, Berkeley. Originally from Los Angeles, Wesley retruned to his hometown to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, earning a M.A. degree in Mathematics. During his time in Southern California, he played the carillon regularly at UC Santa Barbara.

Wesley passed the advancement examination of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 2008. In addition to the carillon, he has studied piano, trombone, and voice, and has perfomed in a number of different concert bands, marching bands, jazz bands, orchestras, and choral groups. He enjoys arranging music, and occasionally performs some of his own arrangements on the carillon. Wesley currently works as an actuary for an insurance company in the Bay Area.

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Tiffany Ng earned a B.A. degree in English and Music at Yale University, where she served as co-chair of the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs, managing belfry renovations and preparations for the 2006 congress of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. With the guidance of Jeff Davis, she passed the GCNA advancement examination and won a fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation. In Belgium, she studied with Geert D'hollander at the Royal Carillon School 'Jef Denyn' and graduated magna cum laude in 2006. She has concertized around North America and Europe, opening the post-congress festival of the World Carillon Federation in 2008.

Ms Ng earned a M.A. in Organ Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in 2008, where she studied with William Porter while serving as carillon instructor and teaching assistant in the Eastman Computer Music Center. An energetic proponent of new music, she has commissioned and premiered eight acoustic and electroacoustic works for carillon and for organ, and revived carillon pieces by Kaikhosru Sorabji and Robert Morris.

Ms Ng is currently pursuing a doctorate in musicology at UC Berkeley with an emphasis on campanology. She has organized campanological exhibits at the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments, and the Municipal Museum of Mechelen, Belgium. On Sundays, she may be heard at the organ in St Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Theological College.

The Berkeley Carillon Students

Fall 2008

	Stephanie Chang is a second-year studying psychology and foreign languages. She finds herself constantly falling in love with one instrument after another (her last affair was with the cello), but she's sure the carillon has a firm hold on her for the coming years. If finances and reality were not an issue, she would spend a considerable amount of time traveling, anywhere and everywhere. She enjoys pomegranate season, pumpkin risotto, dragonboating, Philip Glass, browsing Moe's, and Rachel Maddow's articulate sarcasm.
	Allison Clark is a fourth-year Integrative Biology major from Santa Cruz, CA. She has been playing the piano for 15 years and the carillon for 3 semesters. Allison is keeping busy this semester playing IM basketball, volunteering for Berkeley’s public health department, and working for Girls Inc. of Alameda. She also enjoys tennis, snowboarding, Mexican food, and answering the question “you mean you play the bells in the Campanile?!” when she tells her friends that she plays the carillon.
	Jennifer Gipson is a graduate student in the French department where she is working on a dissertation on the evolution of the figure of the storyteller in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French literature. Her other interests include foreign language pedagogy, the development of the short story, French and Francophone folklore, and the literature of nineteenth century New Orleans. She received a B.A. in music and a B.A. in French from Centenary College of Louisiana and a M.A. in French from UC Berkeley. Jennifer began carillon study in the spring of 2004.
	Hovsep Hajibekyan is a fourth year Poli Sci and Music double major who discovered the wonders of carillon far too late in his college career. Originally from Armenia, he ended up in Berkeley by way of Los Angeles. At a young age he was tricked by his parents into studying the piano, for which he is grateful to them. When not juggling music or politics, Hovsep enjoys improving his Russian skills and/or playing the occasional hacky sack or ping pong.
	Michael Kushell is a music major who enjoys playing a plethora of instruments, mostly focusing on the piano, guitar, and the accordion. A few of his innumerable musical interests include playing in UC Berkeley gamelan ensembles, doing ethnomusicological research with Professor Guilbault, the Latin American Nueva Canción movement, Leonard Cohen, and jazz. Some of his other interests include Clue (the game), Japan (the country), and poetry. Among other things, Michael plans on becoming a professor of music.
	Jessie Lee is a first year graduate student in the School of Optometry. She began carillon lessons during her undergraduate career at UC Berkeley. After receiving a B.A. in Music and a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology, Jessie worked as a research assistant in electron microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She has studied piano and cello and has performed in numerous solo, chamber, orchestral and choral concerts in the Bay Area.
	Sara Malik is a third year student majoring in economics and geography. She previously studied piano for ten years and had a brief stint with the violin. Her other interests include music history, reading, travel, and museums in general. This is her third semester studying the carillon.
	Julius Reyes is a third-year Chemistry student in the College of Chemistry. Originally from Hammond, LA, Julius is embarrassed to admit that after having spent the last two years in the Bay Area, he is no longer able to withstand temperatures over 75 degrees. He studied piano for about ten years before coming to Berkeley and is excited to be studying carillon after taking the DeCal last spring. Outside of problem sets and research, Julius enjoys playing golf, riding his bike, and catching up on sleep.
	Michael Schindler is a third-year Business Administration major from the San Fernando Valley in southern California. He has studied and performed piano for more than 11 years and is looking forward to his first semester playing the carillon. Michael enjoys basketball, football, lifting weights, Madden, ESPN, eating, poker, listening to music, watching Entourage, and wasting time while hanging out with friends. He ultimately wants to own a business, retire early, and travel the world.
	Brian Tang is a CogSci major. His intracurricular interests span the breadth of knowledge, but he would really like to take all his favorite classes pass/fail. Among his passions are chinchilla care and finding new paradigms to approach existing problems. This is his fourth semester studying the carillon.
	Stanley Tang is a graduate student at the UC Berkeley School of Optometry. His musical experience consists of eight years playing B-flat clarinet as well as microscopic experience on piano. Although free time does not exist for Stanley, his hobbies include playing music, sleeping, and dilating the eyes of his optometry classmates. In addition to his optometry and carillon studies, Stanley is also a chemistry tutor at the Student Learning Center.
	Andrew Wetzel Upon discovering that the universe is a really interesting place, he decided to find out as much as he could about it, first as a physics major at Harvey Mudd College (down in sunny, smoggy Los Angeles) and currently as a graduate student in astrophysics. He finds music equally interesting (though for very different reasons) and seems to have a proclivity for pounding on large instruments, be they timpani, marimbas, pianos, or his recent discovery of massive bells in a large tower. However, he can occasionally be found more gently playing his violin, resisting strong desires to constantly play col legno.
	Robert Wu is a second-year Chemical Biology student. This is his second semester learning carillon, after studying piano for about ten years and having some experience playing the trumpet and french horn. Robert enjoys reading, sports, and is an avid tennis player. He enjoys being an RA for Unit 3 Norton Hall and doing research with the Department of Immunology.
	Lu Zhu In his junior year, Lu studies architecture, which kills his free time. From the central coast, his hometown is Santa Cruz, just over the hill. When not in Wurster, he enjoys picking mushrooms, and drinking green tea. He plays piano, carillon as of this term, and loves classical. A hobby of his, if you haven't noticed yet, is writing haikus.