More carillonists sought to play Bathurst War Memorial Carillon

With some new funding secured, the Friends of the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon group is hoping to add to the city's number of carillonists to keep the music coming in Kings Parade.

Wendy Murphy, who was one of three carillonists who were part of the first carillon training program, said it's an exclusive club to join.

"I think there's only 26 trained carillonists in Australia," she said.

"Canberra has their stable of carillonists and Sydney has their stable of carillonists and we have three."

Friends of the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon used a CASP (Country Arts Support Program) grant from Arts OutWest last year to put on an assessment recital for the new carillonists and will use a fresh CASP grant announced this week to put on an open day to demystify the War Memorial Carillon.

"Now that we've got three trained carillonists here we want to encourage more musicians to learn the carillon; it would be nice to think we would have a dozen trained carillonists at some stage," Ms Murphy said.

"The money [from the new grant] is going to go towards hosting an open day to get trained musos in, let them have a bit of a look and have an information session with our teacher from Canberra, Lyn Fuller, who's the lead carillonist [at the National Carillon] and the president of the Carillon Society of Australia."

Potential carillonists will already need to know how to play a keyboard or organ instrument and how to read music and will also have to be over 18 to enter the War Memorial Carillon tower to practise and play.

"That's a council requirement, not ours," Ms Murphy said.

She said increasing the playing numbers would also increase the number of potential performances.

"What we want is people with a variety of styles because that brings a variety of listening opportunities for the Bathurst public," she said.

"Plus, as the community knows that there's real people [playing inside the War Memorial Carillon] and we're trained, we're being asked to do a lot of things.

"For example, we'll be playing at the Inland Sea of Sound - we'll be doing a concert recital as part of that program. And they have also commissioned a composition specifically for the Inland Sea of Sound to be played on the Carillon.

"Of course, there's the Festival of Bells [to be held in April] and Memorial Week in November will be really big.

"We'd like to have a variety of players to cover those, plus of course our remembrance activities: Anzac Day, Remembrance Day."

Bathurst's current carillonists all work full-time, Ms Murphy said, "so that's why having more people spreads the love".

Carillonists are allowed to practise between 8am and 9am and between 5pm and 7pm weekdays, any time on Saturday and then on Sunday afternoons after church has finished, according to Ms Murphy.

"There's also a practice instrument, which is what we all learnt on, over in Machattie Cottage," she said.

"The training program is done in conjunction with the Mitchell Conservatorium. They give us the framework to run the program.

"When you're learning, you practise where no-one can hear you. But there's nothing like practising here with the bells."

Ms Murphy, who is the secretary of the Friends of the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon as well as a trained carillonist, said those who are interested in learning the instrument don't have to wait for the open day to show that they are keen.

"People can email contact@bathurstcarillon.org.au for their initial expression of interest," she said.

"And we will publicise when we're going to have the open day, but if any musician reads this and is keen, they can email us straight away. They don't have to wait.

"We want them on board as soon as possible."

Ms Murphy said the Friends of the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon wanted to acknowledge the support shown by Arts OutWest both last year and this year.

"We're such a fledgling volunteer organisation that manages the performance program, so Arts OutWest support has been really invaluable," she said.

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