Campus Character: George Matthew II

The bells that ring from Mead Chapel characterize daily life on campus, yet what most students don’t realize is that there is a man behind the bells.

George Matthew II has been the College’s carillonneur since 1985 when he played a major role in the design and installation of Middlebury’s own first carillon – an instrument consisting of at least 23 bells, played by striking batons that correspond to notes on a piano – which resides in the tower of Mead Memorial Chapel. Matthew learned to play the carillon in the early 1960s, but his musical ambitions did not begin there.

By the time he was 13 years old, Matthew had begun playing the organ with his father’s church choir in Hartsdale, N.Y., without taking prior lessons.

“I wouldn’t say I taught myself,” said Matthew as to how he learned to play the organ at such a young age. “I’d say the music taught me.”

Since his first job as an organist in his local church, Matthew has built up an extensive resume in the arts. In 1962 Matthew decided he wanted to learn to play the carillon while he was employed as an organist in Scarsdale, N.Y. Since then, he has made 33 carillon concert tours in the U.S. and 12 in Europe, where he has played in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and elsewhere. He became the first American to play the carillon in Russia when he performed concerts there in the summer of 2005.

Until 1995, he commuted a few times a week to play for the College while living in Connecticut, where he was carillonneur, organist or choirmaster for several churches and one temple.

But while Matthew’s passion has always been music, he wasn’t always a musician by profession. Matthew earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in Chemistry. After graduating, he worked for 15 years doing chemical research for the company that is now Duracell. And although he admits he still reads Scientific American “cover to cover” every month, Matthew eventually decided to go back to school to earn his masters in Music Education from the University of Bridgeport. Finally, he earned a second masters from Wesleyan University in ethnomusicology, with a focus in Indian music. Matthew was drawn to the study of Indian music because, “they do incredible things in terms of improvisation. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the violin was an Indian instrument.”

Matthew says it has been a long-term goal of his to bring a carillon to India to see what might be done differently with the instrument in that country, a dream that almost became fulfilled in 1985 when he first started playing at the College.

“Music is more about making it than listening to it,” said Matthew, and with all the musical progress he has made over the years, he has stuck well to this belief. After his studies at Wesleyan, Matthew became inspired to learn the vina, a stringed instrument from India, which he says he would love to start playing again.

In addition to learning new instruments, Matthew has also composed or arranged about one hundred pieces on the carillon and piano.

One of his favorite genres of music to play is ragtime, which one can often hear him playing out of Mead Chapel. His European debut in Ostende, Belgium, was, in fact, composed of ragtime pieces, something he says was quite unusual for the time.

“The year after I did that, everyone was doing it in Europe,” said Matthew.

These days, Matthew plays summer concerts in the New England area and performs the carillon at the College every week.

He also teaches carillon lessons at Norwich University in Northfield, Vt., and is the organist for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Middlebury.

According to Matthew, the carillon is an evolving instrument that first appeared in the late Middle Ages in secular settings; today, he says, it is finding its place among college campuses around the world.

Matthew advises college students to find a group on campus that plays the kind of music you like to play and to keep playing as long as you enjoy it. Although there are not many amateur groups on campus, Matthew loves having students with some degree of piano experience play with him in the Chapel, and he is very open to giving lessons to any interested students.