Robert Town to perform Thanksgiving Day carillon concert

Robert Town will perform a Thanksgiving Day carillon concert from noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26, from the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum at 204 S. Main.

Town, who retired from WSU in 2006 after 41 years of teaching organ, is associate professor emeritus of Wichita State University’s School of Music; he is also the carillon concert coordinator.

Town was recently honored by the Wichita Arts Council with its 2008 Burton Pell Award for outstanding achievement in music. Pell was a longtime member and past president of the Arts Council.

This is one of five annual concerts sponsored by the Sam and Rie Bloomfield Foundation. Other concerts are at Christmas, Easter, Independence Day and Memorial Day. The carillon can be heard throughout downtown Wichita.

Sam Bloomfield was founder, president and chief engineer of the Swallow Airplane Co. The Bloomfields lived in Wichita from the mid-1930s to mid-’50s. They have never forgotten their ties to the city and university, said Town.

“There are no others who played a more active role in the development of the city’s cultural, educational and charitable resources,” he said. “One of the Bloomfields’ significant gifts to the city was the downtown carillon, which is one of the few urban carillons in the nation.”