The 49-bell Carillon of St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh is the largest such instrument in Ireland and Britain.
Dr Ian Brunt was Director of The Lanchester Early Music Festival and City Carillonneur of
Newcastle Upon Tyne, regularly giving concerts and recitals on organ, carillon, harpsichord
and fortepiano. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain 1979-
1981 as flautist, composer and general musician and has specialised in the baroque flute
for over thirty years. He performs with Hexham Collegium Musicum, Anglia Concertante,
Durham Sinfonietta, Tyneside Baroque Players, Durham Baroque, The Hallgate Ensemble,
among others, playing chamber music and giving concerto performances and has recorded
six commercial solo albums on harpsichord, organ and carillon. Recent new music composed includes a pair of Notturni for classical guitar, a setting of George Herbert’s “My
Words and Thoughts” and a solo organ concert piece “Fantazia on a Melody from the Scottish Psalter (1615).” In 2007 he was photographed for The North East Passion Archive project, the images held by Tyne and Wear Museums at The Discovery Museum, Blandford
Square, Newcastle and also accessible on the Internet.
In a tribute to Dr Brunt, Michael Boyd of the British Carillon Society, wrote: “Ian was proud of his Northumberland heritage – he was an exceptionally competent player of the Northumbrian small pipes.
“I believe he wanted to instil a sense of community pride in the Edith Adamson memorial carillon, the first and only carillon to be installed in a civic centre of a major city in Britain. His repertoire also reflected his deep personal connection with the North of England.”
Dr Brunt championed the music of 18th-century Newcastle composer
Charles Avison and was an advocate of folk music on the carillon.
2021: News has just come through of the death this morning at the age of fifty-eight of Ian Brunt, Carillonneur of the Newcastle Civic Centre. Despite his busy workload as a G.P. and ongoing health issues, Ian was also dedicated to his beloved carillon art. He once described how he would swim seventy lengths five times a week in order to keep fit enough to play the carillon, which he claimed was “like going for a five-mile run”! He gave a memorable guest recital in Cobh in July 2007, when this photo was taken. This gentle and cultured man will be sorely missed and long remembered by his colleagues and friends. Requiescat in pace.
https://www.facebook.com/Cobh49bellcarillon
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/7117467-Dr-Ian-Brunt-High-Baroque
But in addition to being a doctor, he was also a composer and an accomplished musician on a variety of instruments, including piano and flute.
https://www.musicdurham.co.uk/reviews/organ-recital-dr-ian-brunt
The Edith Adamson Memorial Carillon, constructed in 1966 by J.Taylor and Co and installed in 1967, was given to the city by James Wilfred Adamson in memory of his wife. James (‘Jimmy’) Adamson started his paints business from a horse and cart, and went on to be a driving force in the establishment of British Paints Ltd, see Link
. The carillon, see Link has 25 bells, the largest of which weighs 71cwt, 1qr, 13lb – which if my maths serves me correctly is 825lb, or 374.214kg – and is tuned to A major. Recitals take place on Saturdays at 2pm and occasionally on Thursday at 7pm – the Carilloneur is Dr Ian Brunt, who swims 70 lengths five times a week in order to keep fit enough to play the carillon, which takes so much physical energy that he describes it as ‘like going for a five-mile run’, see Link . The carillon tower has twelve seahorses and is topped by the three castles of the Newcastle coat-of-arms, see Link .