carillonists
> city carillonist
> our carillonists
> carillonists of St. Catherine’s Church
> the Main Town Hall automatic carillon setters
> carillonists of The Main Town Hall


Monika Kaźmierczak
/ city carillonist /
is a city carillonist of Gdańsk (Poland). She is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Gdańsk (Theory of Music, Church Music, Choir Conducting) and the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort (studies with Arie Abbenes and Bernard Winsemius).
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During her studies, she received number of scholarships, including the Mayor of Gdansk’s scholarship for the best student in the department (2002) and the Huyghens scholarship from the Dutch government (2003/2004). In 2007, thanks to a cultural scholarship from the City of Gdańsk, she took masterclasses from Geert D’hollander in Belgium. She teaches carillon and other subjects at the Music Academy in Gdansk.
Monika is a laureate of several international carillon competitions and a finalist of the 2008 Queen Fabiola competition.
As a performer, she is internationally in demand, playing concerts across Lithuania, the Netherlands, Belgium, USA, France, Denmark, and Ireland, and collaborating on creative projects such as performing solo recitals for the acclaimed early music festival Actus Humanus in Gdańsk, premiering and recording pieces by leading Polish composers for Polish Music Editions, performing regularly with tower trumpeters, top Gdańsk jazz players, and more.
Monika is the founder and director of ongoing musical initiatives such as the Gdańsk Carillon Festival. Since 2012, Monika has held a doctor of arts degree, specialized in carillon playing. She also conducted the Gdansk Burgers’ Choir (Chór Mieszczan Gdańskich) for 11 years and was a president of the Polish Carillon Society. In 2021, Monika was awarded the highest cultural prize in her city: Splendor Gedanensis.

Anna Kasprzycka
Carillonist, sound engineer. Graduate of Theory of Music Departament of Gdańsk Music Academy and the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen in Belgium (2014).
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Laureate of 2nd prize in Young Carillonists Competition in Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux (France, 2014) and 3rd prize in Carillon Duos Competition in Zwolle, Holland (2013). Scholarship fellow of Adam Mickiewicz Institute, City of Gdańsk President, Erasmus Socrates program. In 2017 (February-April) she was on an artistic-research scholarship in Bok Tower Gardens in Florida. In 2020 (August-September) she has been a resident artist in Kaunas Artists’ House (Kaunas, Lithuania). Since 2008 she has been giving concerts in Poland and abroad (in Belgium, Holland, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Ukraine, Russia and USA). Inventor of many projects promoting carillon music among children and youth; among them “The circus has arrived!” (with a circus troupe) and “Carillon – a stolem [mythical Kashubian giant] among instruments” (with Barnaby Theatre). She made several world premieres of contemporary composers, including works composed specially for her. She has recorded several CDs with carillon music and has taken part in a few TV programs.
Author of piano, vocal and orchestral music transcriptions for the carillon and many articles on carillons.

Magdalena Cynk-Mikołajewska
Graduate of Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, has also studied playing the carillon at Gdańsk Music Academy and Royal Carillon School in Mechelen in Belgium.
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She performed in Holland and during the carillon festival in kujawsko-pomorski region and Gdańsk. Composition teacher, organizer of numerous concerts, instrumental workshops and two Polish composer competitions.
Composer of many solo pieces, chamber music, works for orchestra and choir, performed at numerous festivals and concerts in Poland, Europe, the USA and Brazil. Author of theatre music. Laureate of awards of the Marshal of the Voivodeship and the President of Toruń. Receiver of the Badge of Distinguished Culture Activist, the Thorunium Medal of Honor, the Toruń Angel statuette, granted three times the President of Toruń stipend and the President Award for her pedagogical work, granted the Marshal stipend for her composer work four times.
On her initiative, the Pomeranian Music Society was reactivated in 2012, of which she became the president.

Wojciech Lauer
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Teacher by profession. He used to teach music at various music schools in Elbląg, Pelplin and Gdańsk. Today he is teaching music theory at OSM (district music school) in Gdańsk. For more than ten years he has been performing as an instrumentalist playing Gdańsk carillons during yearly concerts and festivals. He took part in 9th International Carillon Festival in Perpignan in France and in International Carillon Competition in Bolsward (Holland).
Gdańsk Carillonists
The first carillon concert was performed from the tower of the Main Town Hall on 23 September 1561 on the occasion of installing a gilded statue of King Sigismund II Augustus on the spire. Since then, until 1942, the city maintained more than 38 city carillonists and assistant carillonists. Thanks to the work of dozens of people, the most important city celebrations, such as visits of crowned heads, and everyday life of the city were accompanied by occasional pieces resonating from bells weighing from several to several hundred kilograms. Today, after the destruction resulting from the Second World War, Gdańsk is the only city in Poland that can boast of having operating carillons. Over the past three decades, thanks to the efforts of the late Paweł Adamowicz, the carillons of St. Catherine’s Church (50 bells) and the Main Town Hall (37 bells) were rebuilt. The third one – carillon called „Gdańsk” – is a mobile instrument (48 bells), which can reach almost any town in Poland and Europe. They are managed by the Museum of Gdańsk.
Carillonists of St. Catherine’s Church:
- 1738-1748 (?) – Eltje Wolters
- 1754 (?)-1766 Daniel Rothländer
- 1754 (?)-1798 Carl Gottfried Busch (from 1766 – as first carillonist)
- 1766-1803 Johann Ephraim Eggert (1766-1798 – as second carillonist), also organist at the Corpus Christi Church
- 1798-1843 Carl Friedrich Eggert (1798-1803 – as second carillonist, after 1803 as first carillonist)
- 1843-1866 Carl Friedrich Müller
- 1866-1895 Paul Krieschen
- 1881-1920 Paul Krieschen (son)
- 1920-1924 Gustav Krieschen
- 1924-1942 Georg Edel
- 1999-2004 Małgorzata Fiebig
- 2001-2005 Karol Meissner
- 2001-2003 Monika Kaźmierczak
- 2005-2006 Fabian Stanisz
2005-marzec 2015 Monika Kaźmierczak - April 2015-August 2015 Anna Kasprzycka, Wojciech Lauer
- September 2015-present Monika Kaźmierczak


The Main Town Hall
automatic carillon setters:
- 1560-1564 Franciscus de Rivulo
- 1564-1576 i 1577-1586 Philipp Schönberg
- 1576-1577 Michael Colrep[us]
- 1586-1602 Jacob Tetius [Tetz]
- 1602-1609 Bartel Byhan [Biehn]
- 1609-1612 Franz Tetz
- 1612-1634 Hans Neunaber [Neunachbar]
- 1634-1663? Andreas Neunaber
- 1663?-1678? Jakob Neuna[ch]ber
- 1678-1679 Johann Eichst[a]edt
- 1680-1694 Gottfried Wernick
- 1714?-1715? Christian Biehn
- ?-1750 Peter Bewersdorf
- 1750-1763? David Krüger
- przed 1773-1775 Theodor Friedrich Gülich
- 1776-1779 R. L. Liebendey
- 1780-1789? J. G. Borowski
- 1794?-? D. Krieger [Krüger?]
- 1808?-1847 Paul Friedrich Knaack
- 1847-1882 Carl Anton Kaschlinsky
- po 1882 the Krieschen family (?)
Carillonists of The Main Town Hall:
- 2001-2004 Małgorzata Fiebig
- 2001-2005 Karol Meissner
- 2001-2003 Monika Kaźmierczak
- 2005-2006 Fabian Stanisz
- 2005-March 2015 Monika Kaźmierczak
- April 2015-August 2015 Anna Kasprzycka, Wojciech Lauer
- September 2015-present Monika Kaźmierczak