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The Dutch carillon player, Gideon Bodden, studied the carillon at both the Belgian (Mechelen) and Dutch (Amersfoort) carillon schools. He won several international contests for carillon playing, including the prestigious Queen Fabiola International Carillon Playing Competition in Mechelen, Belgium, in 1993. In 1994, together with Gildas Delaporte, he won the 1st Prize in the First Competition for Duet-carillon playing in Douai, France. He was awarded an Honorary Certificate of the University of California at Berkeley in 1998.
In 1993 Gideon Bodden was appointed citycarillonneur of Amsterdam, currently presiding over the carillons in the Minttower and in the Oude Kerk Tower (both instruments were originally made by the Hemony brothers). As citycarillonneur of Oudewater he plays the only Taylor-carillon that was installed in Holland after World War II. In 1998 he succeeded his former teacher Carlo van Ulft as citycarillonneur of Hilvarenbeek, in the South of The Netherlands. In 2008 he was appointed as City Carillonneur of Schoonhoven, where he plays, in collaboration with Boudewijn Zwart, the 18th century Van den Gheyn carilllon.
Being an outspoken advocate for the performance of music of very high quality on the carillon, Gideon Bodden gave recitals on almost all important carillons in the Low Countries, France, Germany, Denmark and the United States. During a two-month stay in 1993 he gave 120 carillon recitals on the traveling carillon in Nagasaki Holland Village, Japan, where he also recorded the first Japanese Carillon-CD. In August 2003, in one concert at the carillon of the Great Church at Dordrecht he performed the complete carillon oeuvre by the Dutch composer Kors Monster.
During several years Gideon Bodden was active as a member of the board of directors of the Dutch Carillon Society (NKV) and today he frequently performs as a guest-recitalist both in Europe and in the USA. As director of the European Division of Het Molenpad Expertise, he restores, constructs and maintains carillon installations and tower clocks and he is specializes in bell tuning. Besides, he regularly lectures on campanological-related subjects in different settings. He is a specialist in designing bell profiles and in tuning carillon bells. He currently lives in Gouda, South Holland. |
