It can be lonely at the top—and it almost always is at the top of the monolithic musical instruments known as carillons. On Saturday night in Springfield, Illinois, UIC graduate student Hunter Chase was one of just five people chosen to venture alone to the peak of the 132-foot bell tower in Washington Park to perform at the Rees International Carillon Competition.
A disproportionate number of the carillons in the U.S. are located in the midwest, and the several prominent instruments in the Chicago area include the granddaddy of them all, the Rockefeller Chapel carillon on the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park campus. The historic church’s 72 bells, totaling 100 tons of bronze, make its carillon the second-largest musical instrument ever built—and a hell of a practice room for Chase, who began playing it regularly as part of a carillon club while an undergraduate at the U. of C. He still plays it about once a week.
