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John
Gouwens joined the faculty of The Culver Academies
in the fall of 1980. He serves as Organist and Carillonneur of The Academies, and in addition teaches
piano students at the schools. (From 1996 through
spring 2004, he also was Choir Director of The Academies.) He
recently released his third recording of the organ and carillon at Culver. In
the fall of 2002, he was appointed Visiting Lecturer in
Carillon at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. The
following link takes you to the schedule of carillon
performances at Ball State.
Gouwens is noted for his improvisation skills, on the
organ and on the carillon, and has given presentations for
several chapters of the American Guild of Organists and for
an annual congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North
America on this subject. He also won a carillon
improvisation contest at the 1983 GCNA congress, the first
such competition held by that organization. In 2004, he hosted the annual congress of the GCNA at Culver, having
done so also in 1985. Gouwens is also active on the chapter level in the American Guild of Organists, where he presently is Dean of both the Saint Joseph Valley Chapter and the Fort Wayne Chapter.
He has written many works for carillon as well as several
pieces for choir. He was awarded First Prize in a
composition competition for a choir piece for the
bicentennial of the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He also was
awarded the "Jef Denyn Prize" (first prize) in a
carillon composition competition organized by the Royal
Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium. Two of Culver's
traditional songs, "Culver Daughters, Sing Thy
Praise," and "Treasured Memory," were
composed by Mr. Gouwens. More recently, for the occasion of
the centennial of Culver Summer Camps, Mr. Gouwens was
commissioned to write a new song (words and music),
"Leaders for Tomorrow."
Mr. Gouwens has garnered many accolades as a performer over the
years. He was a finalist four times in the National Organ
Competition at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, and
won First Prize in the 1990 International Organ Competition
organized by the University of Michigan. He has played organ
recitals at many noted venues around the United States and
has played carillon recitals there and abroad. In August of
2005, he made his Sixth concert tour of Europe, playing recitals throughout The Netherlands, Belgium, and
Denmark.
He studied organ and carillon at Indiana University
(Bloomington), the University
of Michigan, and the University
of Kansas, holding degrees in organ performance from the
latter two schools. He was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
His instructors included Richard Carlson, Clyde
Holloway,
Robert Clark, and Robert Glasgow in organ, and Albert Gerken
in carillon.
He is very active in the Guild of Carillonneurs in North
America, where he serves as chairman of the Johan Franco
Composition Committee (which commissions new music for
carillon and organizes composition
competitions). He also
serves on the Music Publications Committee and on the Student
Examinations Committee. He is very active as an editor
and arranger of music for GCNA publications, as well as a
contributing composer. He has performed at numerous
congresses of the GCNA, as well as at several carillon
festivals and a congress of the World Carillon Federation.
In the summer of 2002, he presented a recital on the organ
of the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University
as part of the Chicago
convention of the Organ Historical
Society. He performed both on the organ and on the carillon for the 2007 Indianapolis Convention of the Organ Historical Society.
In
2003, Mr. Gouwens completed a method book for teaching
beginning students on the carillon. The book, "Playing
the Carillon: An Introductory Method," is the first
American carillon method book, and at this time is the only
carillon method book in print worldwide. It is published by
the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. Some excerpts
from the book may be viewed
online.
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