Sunday Afternoon Carillon Recitals
The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon was a gift to The Riverside Church by the late John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in memory of his mother. It contains 74 bronze bells ranging in weight from the 20 ton (18 metric) Bourdon (hour bell) to the smallest treble bell of 10 pounds (4.5 kg). The Bourdon is the second largest and heaviest carillon bell ever cast. The total weight of all the bells is over 100 tons (91 metric).
When installed at The Park Avenue Baptist Church in 1925 by Gillett & Johnston Foundry of England, it was already the world’s largest carillon, with 53 bells and a bourdon of ten tons. When it moved here, with the congregation, in 1930, it was enlarged by Gillett & Johnston to become the first carillon to surpass five musical octaves; it is the only carillon to have achieved a bourdon pitch of C, a full octave below the normal range for a carillon. In 1956, the upper range of bells was replaced by the Van Bergen Foundry of the Netherlands.
The bells swing a peal each Sunday at 10:20 a.m. The Carillon can be heard played every Sunday at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 1:30 p.m., and on other special occasions. They can be heard and viewed online as part of the Sunday morning Service of Worship.
Sunday afternoon recitals are outdoor only and take place most weeks at 1:30 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) and can be best heard outdoors listening from Sakura Park, immediately north of Riverside Church at 122nd Street.
Riverside Carillonneurs:
Kamiel Lefévere (1930-1960)
James R. Lawson (1960-1989)
Joseph Clair Davis (1990-1998)
Dionisio Lind (1999-2019)
Charles Semowich (2019-2024)
Lynnli Wang (2024-present)