School of Music

Carillon Studio

Spring 2024
Jennifer Moloney

Jennifer Moloney is a sophomore pursuing a bachelors in Data Science with a minor in Computer and Information Science and Engineering. Raised in South Florida, Jennifer has an extensive background in piano and musical theater. Currently, she works closely with the School of Theatre and Dance under the direction of Andrew Cao and serves as a collaborative artist for the department. Academically, Jennifer is involved in undergraduate research with the department of Engineering Education. Jennifer is the newest addition to the UF Carillon Studio and is very excited to contribute and expand her musical abilities.

Spring 2024
Beth Blair

Beth is a senior nursing student and music performance minor from deep in the Florida panhandle. This is her 5th semester in studio, and she loves having carillon as her musical outlet. Beth comes from a piano and percussion background, and she is thrilled to get to continue her music education here at UF. Beth is the recipient of the 2023-24 Web Carillon Scholarship for her dedication and scholastic achievement in carillon studies. This past summer she attended the 80th Annual Guild of Carillonneurs of North America Congress in Coahasset, MA where she became a member of the guild. Beth is involved with her sorority, Sigma Phi Lambda, and her church, Greenhouse College, both of which she helps lead worship on the keyboard. You can find her on campus at the GatorWell Health Promotions Services office where she works as a Health and Wellness Educator!

Spring 2024
Francesca Chalfoun

Francesca is a second-year student majoring in Biology on the Pre-Medical track. This is her first semester in the studio and comes from a piano and guitar background. She is involved in the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) as the Public Relations officer and recently started as a volunteer with UF Shands hospital. Her hobbies include puzzles, creating art, Rubik's cubes, and learning languages.

Spring 2024
Andrew Lyons

Andrew is a third-year student majoring in philosophy with a minor in economics. This is his fourth semester in the UF Carillon Studio. He has a background in piano, as he has played it for nearly his whole life. Andrew also enjoys playing the trombone, guitar, and singing the bass in the UF a cappella group Tone Def. Outside of music, Andrew is a member of the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity and can sometimes be found juggling in the Plaza of the Americas.

Spring 2024
Mark Zhang

Mark is a fourth-year student majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Digital Arts & Sciences. This is his 4th semester in the UF Carillon Studio. Coming from a background in Piano, Mark hopes to expand his musical knowledge by pursuing the Carillon. He is involved with the Asian American Student Union at UF and its respective sub-organizations and programs. Outside of school and carillon, Mark enjoys sports, photography, and origami.

Spring 2024
Rayyan Merchant

Rayyan is a recent graduate of UF, having obtained a B.A. in Linguistics and a B.S. in Computer Science in December 2023. Rayyan began his carillon studies at UF in 2021, and continued his studies while living in Aachen, Germany in 2022, where he played the town hall carillon and took lessons with Dr. Luc Rombouts of the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn" (Mechelen, Belgium). Rayyan, alongside fellow UF carillonneur Michael Dixon, recently received a Composer-Performer Grant from The Guild of Carillonneurs of North America, to compose and perform a new work for carillon focusing on carillon tremolo. This work, entitled "Albireo", will be premiered at Saturday's 1:55pm concert. For the past five weeks, Rayyan has been cataloguing and sorting the UF Carillon Library, consisting of works donated by former carillon professor Willis Bodine, current carillon professor Dr. Laura Ellis, Herman Berginck, and Beverly Buchanan. The resulting catalogue, consisting of over three thousand items, renders the now-sorted collection fully accessible to UF carillonneurs for years to come.

Spring 2024
Charleigh Baab

Charleigh is a third-year majoring in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology with a minor in Dance and is working towards her Dance in Medicine Certificate. This is her second year in studio. Her main instrument is piano, but she also loves to sing and used to be a part of an a cappella group. Charleigh is also involved in Extreme Dance here at UF where she both choreographs and performs with the team. She is also the Arts in Medicine Director for UF's pre-health honors society, Alpha Epsilon Delta. 

Spring 2024
Anna Huber

Anna is continuing her education at UF as a first-year master's student majoring in Biological Engineering. With a musical background in piano, she joined the UF Carillon Studio as a way to continue pursuing music in college. This is her sixth semester in the UF Carillon Studio. Anna is also involved in biomass gasification research with Dr. Welt in the ABE department. Outside of class, she can be found trying local coffee shops, eating Krishna lunch, and spending time outdoors!

Spring 2024
Michael Dixon

Michael Dixon is a third-year student at the University of Florida, majoring in music composition. He has been a member of the UF Carillon Studio since August 2022. He is also a member of the UF Horn Studio under Dr. Paul Basler and performs in the UF Wind Symphony. With a musical background in both French horn and piano, he studies carillon to broaden the scope of his experience as a composer and performer. His hobbies include hiking, baking, Dungeons and Dragons, and rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution; he co-founded the University Rhythm Game Enthusiasts, a student organization at UF that focuses on rhythm video games.

Spring 2024
Tri Nguyen

I'm a fourth-year student majoring in civil engineering and minoring in computer science and electrical engineering. This is now my fourth semester playing carillon! Outside of class and carillon, my other interests include piano, soccer, gymnastics, and martial arts. I've also been really enjoying dancing for cultural shows of organizations, such as JiaTing, FSA, VSO, KUSA, and CASA.

Spring 2024
Carlos Colón-Ortiz

Carlos is a graduate student at the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. He graduated with a music performance minor in carillon in May 2022 with over 4 years of performance experience. During the same month, he was also awarded the Sally Slade Warner Arrangement & Transcription Competition Performance Award. His work was a transcription of El Coquí, a traditional Puerto Rican Danza by José Ignacio Quintón (1881-1925). Due to this distinction, his piece was performed at the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon at the University of Chicago (IL) during the annual congress of The Guild of Carillonneurs of North America (GCNA) in June 2022.

In his continued approach to contributing to the art of carillon playing, Carlos is developing a project through the GCNA's Ronald Barnes Memorial Fund. His project consists of researching dances archived in his homeland of Puerto Rico to create carillon arrangements, thus enhancing the carillon repertoire with a more diverse cultural heritage.

Spring 2024
Liz Stoeber

Liz is a fourth-year criminology major who is in the University of Florida Gator Band where she is a member of the 10-time national champion Gatorettes (the majorette team for the university). She is also the president of the band sorority Tau Beta Sigma and this is her fourth semester playing carillon. Liz was introduced to carillon by another sister of Tau Beta Sigma and has been enthusiastic to learn all she can about being a carillonneur.

Spring 2024
Katie Mann

Katie is a third-year international studies and Arabic double major and mass communications minor who joined carillon studio in spring 2022. Her musical background comes from nine years of playing cello, but she also plays piano and banjo. Most recently, she started taking oud lessons while studying in Amman, Jordan on a Critical Language Scholarship. Outside of carillon, she is involved in Students for Justice in Palestine, Swamp Records, Gators for Refugee Medical Relief, and often spends time hammocking and reading by Lake Alice.

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