Wesley Arai, Associate Carillonist at the University of California, Berkeley, will return to Spokane for his annual Fourth of July Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
With Arai’s own arrangements of carillon music for the holiday spanning the centuries from Bach to Scott Joplin to John Philip Sousa, the highlight of this year’s program will be Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” played as a duet with Cathedral Carilloneur, Byrl Cinnamon, according to a press release.
Arai said in a statement, “I think one of the major benefits of having two people playing the carillon isn’t that you can make more sound, but that the listener gets to trace two independent, more complex lines of music played simultaneously.”
Arai studied carillon at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received B.A. degrees in Mathematics and Statistics with a minor in Music. Wesley returned to Los Angeles, his hometown, to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, earning an M.A. in Mathematics. During graduate studies, he regularly played the Storke Tower Carillon at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The St. John the Evangelist Carillon in Bishop Cross Tower is one of the finest in the world and one of a very few in the Pacific Northwest. The carillon consists of 49 bells, cast and installed by John Taylor & Sons of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. The bells are played prior to Sunday services, as well as times of religious and civic festivals.
Arai will begin playing the concert about 9 p.m. The city fireworks at 10 p.m. are best viewed from the roadway along the north side of the Cathedral.
Free parking is available behind Lindaman’s Restaurant at Grand Boulevard and 13th Street.
