Every weekday at 5 p.m., bells ring out from Wait Chapel, filling Wake’s campus with a powerfully melodic clanging symphony. Sometimes it is a classical piece, most likely unrecognized by the average college student; but sometimes it is Coldplay’s “Clocks” or the theme song of Harry Potter.
There is a face behind those bells, which are actually an instrument called the carillon.
“When I think of Kathryn Rohrer, I think of smiles, laughing, reading, music, maturity and a woman of great faith,” said senior Della Hinman.
Hinman is describing friend and fellow senior Kathryn Rohrer, an Economics major, English minor, and University carillonneur of two years.
Rohrer, a longtime piano player, was enrolled in private piano lessons with music professor Dr. Goldstein when she was approached midway through her freshman year about playing the carillon.
“Lauren Bradley, Wake Forest’s carillonneur and a Wake Forest graduate who is … in charge of the program, emailed [Dr. Goldstein],” Rohrer said. “She wanted more student players and Dr. Goldstein mentioned it to me. I thought, ‘I don’t even know what this is but I’ll meet with her and see!’ I just went up to watch her play one day and I was like, ‘This is really cool.’”
Rohrer quickly decided to enroll in a course that summer to spend it working and studying in Winston-Salem in order to learn the instrument.
The instrument itself is similar to an organ. “It’s made of long levers that you play kind of with your fists, and foot petals like an organ,” Rohrer said.
Rohrer’s background in piano made the learning process easier, but she still dedicated hours per week that summer to practicing. Now, Rohrer plays two “recitals,” or 5 p.m. performance slots, per week, along with Bradley and another adult, Ray Ebert, a former organist at Centenary United Methodist Church who can play without using music. Other students are currently training with Bradley, as well.
University carillonneur is not a title Rohrer envisioned when coming to college, but it’s one she’s come to love. “It’s fun to be a part of the public life of campus, but I’m anonymous,” she said. “No one really knows that it’s me but the whole campus can hear me, which is kind of crazy.”
Hidden face behind the bells is a fitting role for Rohrer, who epitomizes modesty without any fear of hiding her talent, either. She impacts the sound of the bells to friends.
“I listen much more closely now,” said senior and friend Ellie Poole.
Hinman echoed Poole, and added that when she hears the bells, they seem “a special, personal gift to campus that day from Kathryn.”
Wake’s Janet Jeffrey Carlile Harris Carillon is actually one of a decreasing number of carillons still played manually. The 12-ton grand carillon in Wait Chapel’s Davis Family Tower is made up of 48 cast bronze bells each donated by reverends and friends of the University in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Twenty-seven of the bells bear a cast inscription of dedication, verse, or prose. “There are sheets of paper in the tower telling what’s engraved on the bells,” Rohrer said. One of the more popular inscriptions is on the bass B-flat bell, unofficially known as the “Arnold Palmer Bell:” “I celebrate the Deacons’ achievements on the playing fields: winning baskets, home runs and touchdowns, long drives and short putts.”
Daily serenades from such a unique instrument are taken for granted by most University students, although amazement is a common reaction once Rohrer’s contribution is discovered. “A lot of the time, people will say ‘Oh there’s someone actually playing that,’” Rohrer said.
Another typical response is to inquire about the songs Rohrer plays. “I can play whatever I want,” she said. She sometimes chooses from a drawer full of classical music arranged for the carillon. “What’s the most fun is picking songs I know people will recognize on the quad,” Rohrer said, citing The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” as an all-time favorite.
Rohrer tries to have fun with the music she infuses campus with. “Lauren and I did a duet of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” once,” she said. When Poole’s 22nd birthday rolled around February 24, she played “Happy Birthday.”
Rohrer harbors a long-time devotion to her music. “I always loved practicing,” Rohrer said, “you would always hear kids say, ‘Oh do I have to practice the piano?’ and that was always something I really enjoyed.”
She sang in numerous choirs throughout her childhood and into college, but does not consider voice her instrument. Despite her humbly unassuming nature, Rohrer is a performer. “I love to be on stage, I’ve always loved being on stage.”
Besides music, Rohrer is a quietly yet actively involved senior around campus. Always quick to offer a smile, her tranquil presence is not unnoticed among friends’ everyday activities.
“She is gentle, creative, compassionate, kind, and silly,” Poole said. “We always just have a great time riding in the car from one place to another or sitting at lunch together.”
Along with her gentle demeanor, Rohrer also possesses an innocent joy. “One of my favorite memories with [my sister] is when we started a dance party above the teen pool party on a cruise when no one was dancing and we were too old to be at the party,” Rohrer said.
Whether giggling with friends, humoring her brother, practicing piano, or ringing the five-o-clock bells, Rohrer brings not only light but also a genuine care to all that she does.
“I just love music and I love getting to create something beautiful,” Rohrer said. “There’s nothing in the air and then you sit down and you create something beautiful for people to hear.”
*Photos taken by freshman Karleigh Ash