Students Junyu Deng, Julia Ong, Nan Raghuraman, and Jay Yin from UC Santa Barbara University Carillonist Wesley Arai's studio will present a recital from the carillon in UC Santa Barbara's Storke Tower on Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 10 am PT. Listeners are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair to sit on the grass outside the tower during the recital.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Junyu Deng is a fourth-year majoring in Microbiology and Economics, with a minor in Music, from Milpitas, California. Her main instrument is piano but picked up flute, piccolo, and oboe in high school. Currently, Junyu is trying to create more content for her cooking page and train her three rats to do tricks. She knew she wanted to learn the carillon when she first heard it while touring campus and thought it was super cool! Junyu has studied carillon for two years and this is her fourth quarter performing on the carillon.
 
Julia Ong is a third-year chemistry major in the College of Creative Studies and she is from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her main instrument is piano, which she has been playing for more than ten years and performed for recitals and charity concerts. Julia is studying carillon because she wants to explore instruments besides piano to continue her music studies. She is also interested in the history and repertoire of the carillon because it is a unique combination of bells and keyboard. Other musical instruments Julia plays include the recorder and the ukulele. She also enjoys tap dancing, reading fantasy fiction, and playing board games. This is Julia’s fourth quarter studying the carillon.
 
Nan Raghuraman is a third-year mathematics and data science major and music minor from the Bay Area. Nan has been playing piano since the age of 5 and played marimba throughout high school. She marched the 2022 season of Winter Guard International with Dark Sky Percussion on vibraphone. Her passion for keyboard instruments encouraged her to pursue the carillon for the first time this quarter. She is also part of the sitar ensemble at UC Santa Barbara and has found immense joy in learning classical Indian music. Outside of music, Nan has an interest in cultivating tropical plants and uses her passion for botany as inspiration for other artistic endeavors such as embroidery. 
 
Shih-Chieh (Jay) Yin is a fourth-year biopsychology undergraduate. Jay was born in Taiwan but spent most of his time growing up in Guangdong, China. He loves the carillon course a lot. Even though the process of learning the carillon has been challenging and slow, Jay feels enriched with satisfaction each time he sees his skills improve. Most of the pieces he has played on the carillon so far are Baroque, which is his favorite period, both for the carillon and other instrumental music. Jay enjoys playing contemporary music on the piano and sometimes makes arrangements of his favorite pieces. He wishes to bring some of those pieces to the carillon in the future. Jay has studied carillon for two years and this is his fourth quarter performing on the carillon.

ABOUT THE STORKE TOWER CARILLON
UC Santa Barbara's Storke Tower and its carillon were a gift from Thomas Storke, former publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press. The instrument consists of 61 bells cast by Petit & Fritsen of the Netherlands, with the bells weighing from 18 pounds to 2.5 tons, and spanning five octaves. The UCSB carillon is a much larger modern copy of historical instruments that were invented approximately 500 years ago in the Low Countries of Europe. Tower bells had previously been used for signaling time and for additional signals such as "Close the City Gates", "Go to church", and "An enemy is coming." Eventually, the number of bells was increased and were hooked up to a keyboard to facilitate the performance of music. A melody was often played to attract the attention of the townspeople before the hour bell tolled the time throughout the day. A carillon is played with the fists and feet, and the action is completely mechanical. To vary the dynamics of the music, the performer must strike the key harder or use a lighter touch, much like a piano. The UC Santa Barbara carillon celebrated its 50th birthday in 2019.