Electroacoustic and acoustic works for carillon by Dr. Julie Zhu, performed by the composer with John Granzow, Tiffany Ng, and Eric Whitmer. Audiences are invited to listen anywhere outside on Ingalls Mall. Followed at 12:45 pm by a panel discussion with the composer in the Michigan Room (Michigan League, 2nd floor).

bellVoix is a site-specific performance at U-M’s Burton Memorial Tower. Instead of broadcasting songs, the carillon has a speaking voice. Artist and performer Julie Zhu talks through a convolution of her voice and bell sounds to passersby, surprising them with specific details surveilled from the tower, goading them into conversation.

When a carillon cyborg finally acquires language, what will she say? How might listeners – who don’t have a choice whether to listen – react to the authority of a public musical instrument who necessarily has opinions? bellvoix makes obvious the specific social contract between the carillon and the community it serves, woos, or antagonizes. Who is the carillon? And why do we bell?

JULIE ZHU, President’s Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor (performing arts technology), will be joined by fellow musicians John Granzow, Tiffany Ng, and Eric Whitmer to perform additional works from her carillon oeuvre, including lumière for carillon and electronics, allegro, and i knelt before the passing time. The composition of bellvoix was supported by the U-M Arts Initiative and premiered earlier in 2024 in the series “XR/XF: Extended Realities/Extended Feminisms” with the Digital Studies Institute.

This event is part of the 2024 University of Michigan Organ Conference / Great Lakes Regional Carillon Meeting: https://wp.me/p7VjVq-qh