music.wikisort.org - Musician

Adèle Celestine Josephina Colson (24 February 1905 – 22 December 1997) was the first woman to graduate from the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn" in Mechelen, Belgium, and the first woman in the world to earn a professional carillon certification.

Life and career

Colson was born in Mechelen, Belgium, and studied voice and piano at the Mechelen Conservatory. She attempted to enroll at the Royal Carillon School, but lead faculty member Staf Nees [nl] refused to teach her because he believed the carillon should not be played by women.[1] The eventual namesake of the school, Jef Denyn, agreed to take her on as a student.[1]

Colson was a student of the carillon school from 1924 and earned her carillon diploma on August 10, 1929, performing a range of repertoire including Jef van Hoof's Praeludium quasi una fantasia, an original piece she composed, and Matthias Vanden Gheyn's third carillon prelude. Due to gender discrimination, she was never able to find ongoing employment as a carillonist and famously tore up her diploma.[2] In the 1970s, Royal Carillon School director Piet van den Broek reissued her diploma that is now preserved in the Anton Brees Carillon Library.[1]

References

External links

• Photograph of Adèle Colson (c1929) in the Bok Tower Gardens Digital Collections
• Photograph of Adèle Colson looking at the camera (c1929) in the Bok Tower Gardens Digital Collections
• Photograph of Adèle Colson's carillon diploma in the Bok Tower Gardens Digital Collections
• Photograph of Adèle Colson with Jef Denyn in the Bok Tower Gardens Digital Collections
• Digitized photographs of Adèle Colson in the Regionale Beeldbank of Mechelen, Bonheiden, Duffel, Sint-Katelijne-Waver and Zemst
• Catalogue of the Municipal Carillon Museum of Mechelen, Belgium

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