It can be lonely at the top—particularly from the great heights of the unusual musical instruments known as carillons. Or so it seemed for Hunter Chase, the UIC graduate student who was one of only five people chosen to venture alone to the top of the 132-foot bell tower to perform at the Rees International Carillon Competition in Springfield’s Washington Park on Saturday night.
Watching him play—it’s easy to see why that might be the case. When it was his turn to impress the judges, Chase took an elevator alone to the eighth floor of the carillon and sat stiffly on a wooden bench. He spent the entire 20-minute, four-song performance staring intently at sheet music as he deftly struck wooden batons of a keyboard so massive that he balled his hands into half-closed fists to effectively hit them with enough force. Each time he pressed one of the 67 planks or connected foot pedals to play a note, bronze bells that range in size from 22 pounds to 7.5 tons rung out—some with a slight tinkle, others shook with a heavy, chest-rattling gong that reverberated a quarter of a mile away.
