[Bells chiming] Curry: On the Virginia side of Memorial Bridge, on a hill called Arlington Ridge, stands a 127-foot structure that houses 53 bells called a carillon.

♪ Curry: Musician Ed Nassor has been playing it for over 30 years.

Nassor: The reason it functions so well outdoors is that it's-- it's purely mechanical.

When I press this baton, it pulls a wire that pulls a clapper to strike the bell.

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west and there's a sunset, and I'm playing "Stairway to Heaven."

What could be better?

♪ Curry: This particular instrument is called the Netherlands Carillon.

Woman: It is a gift from the Netherlands people, the Dutch people to the American people to thank them for the assistance during the Second World War and afterwards.

♪ Curry: The Netherlands commemorates its liberation from Nazi occupation on May 5th with a ceremony at the Netherlands Carillon.

[Carillon chiming] Tazelaar: It's something to remind us, both America and as well as the Netherlands, that something like freedom should not be taken for granted.

Curry: The tower sits between the Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

Man: ...when the Netherlands wanted to thank all the countries that helped to liberate them.

Curry: And it's managed by the National Park Service.

Scott Hill: The most commonly asked question, though, is, "Can I get up there?"

and, unfortunately, I have to be the bad person and say, "No, I'm sorry, you cannot."

And when they ask why, I just say that it is for the carillonneurs to play at and to practice at.

Hill: Thank you for coming out here today.

[Carillon chiming] Nassor: I have been the director and carillonneur of the Netherlands Carillon since 1987.

Curry: Nassor first studied on the Virginia War Memorial Carillon in Richmond while a student at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Nassor: I moved back up here wondering if I would ever play a carillon again.

A friendly park ranger told me I should come to the Netherlands Carillon to meet the director of the Carillon, Frank Law, which I did, and he accepted me as a student.

♪ By allowing young carillonneurs to practice, the Park Service is really creating the next generation of carillonneurs.

[Carillon chiming] Hill: In this area, there are a number of individuals who are mid-twenties who had practiced at carillons at the University of Michigan, at Princeton University, and others.

I sign them on to play on this wonderful instrument.

♪ I met Ed at the Netherlands Carillon in 2022.

I introduced myself to him and said I'd played at the University of Michigan.

He said, "Great, we need people to play this summer during recitals.

Do you want to play?"

And I appreciated that-- I appreciate him a lot.

Man, voice-over: I knew of Ed Nassor, so when I came to DC for an internship, it was my goal to meet him.

We are not professional musicians as, like, a primary occupation.

I work in the area as a data engineer.

Flood: I started in 2017 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which has a chime, which is like a carillon, but it has fewer than 23 bells, and it has a wildly different keyboard than this one.

♪ When I graduated, I toured all of the carillons that I could get to, and I said, "I need to learn how to play this instead."

♪ Lieberman: Nice.

That's exciting.

♪ Lieberman, voice-over: The way I got involved was that I had been a leader of the Jewish graduate student community at the University of Michigan, and we would sometimes hear the carillon on campus play Jewish songs, and I was delighted and surprised and wanted to learn more.

I don't think I ever thought of myself playing the carillon or bells, probably because, being Jewish, I always associated it with churches and thought you had to be involved with the church in order to play.

So I enrolled in a class in January 2020, not knowing COVID was about to happen, and then there really wasn't much else to do but practice.

Nassor: Like me, they've learned in university and, like me 40 years ago, they came out and said, "Am I ever going to play the carillon again?"

Now they have the opportunity, thanks to the National Park Service and the generosity of the Dutch people.

Heh!

All the way up.

Get our steps in for the day.

Ha ha!

♪ Lieberman: Each of the bells here has different decorations and different poems inscribed on them to represent the different segments of Dutch society who contributed money for the Netherlands Carillon.

♪ You can see how much love was put into the bells and how they were personalized and made in a way to make it feel special, because not every bell tower is like this.

It's not like every bell is decorated differently in every carillon.

Curry: The newest bell commemorates 75 years since the liberation of the Netherlands.

♪ Nassor: The Netherlands Carillon means a lot to me as the son of a World War II veteran.

My father had passed away before I learned to play the carillon.

But my uncle, also a World War II veteran, came up to the tower in the days when you could, and I played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" for him.

He was looking out over the monuments of Washington, the tears came streaming down his face, and then he began to sing.

So...that's what it's all about.

It's reaching people in their hearts.

[Chimes echo] Playing music on bells has this incredible, powerful ability to bring about memories.

One of my friends brought his young child, and I started playing "The Moon Represents My Heart" by Teresa Teng.

And he texted me, "I sing this song to her every single night.

Like, this means so much to me."

♪ I will play music from Jewish culture and I'll also play pop songs.

And when you hear these recognizable songs, like, "Oh, no, this is part of the community.

It's part of us."

I decided to play a Pride-themed program tonight because I know there is a significant queer community in the DC area, and I hope people are excited about it, so we'll see.

I met a few young carillonneurs, and I don't know how to describe the feeling that they gave me.

I mean, being so young, and playing an instrument from the 16th, 17th century, I mean, it's quite something.

I am not musically inclined by any stretch of the imagination, but listening to them and seeing their passion in these young carillonneurs just really inspires me.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Netherlands Carillon and the 2024 Netherlands Carillon Concert Series.

♪ Woman: Whoo!

Man: Yeah!

[Sustained cheering and applause] Flood, voice-over: So we got some cheers, which is fun.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm ready to eat.

Woman: And you get to just hear the music, you can see the monuments.

It's just, like, a great way to spend a summer evening.

Woman: People are always like, "Oh, there is a person up there?

And I can actually recognize this tune."

It's not just "America the Beautiful," but it's, like, "You've Got a Friend in Me" and other things that they recognize and that they can enjoy as well.

Nassor: It's no longer such a solitary, one-person-in-the-tower endeavor for decades.

They're developing a carillon culture in this town, and I'm so happy to see it.

It's a gift that keeps on giving.

This Netherlands Carillon tells a story that we need to keep around for our future generations.

That's why I'm here.

That's why I do what I do.

Tazelaar: I hope that the carillonneur is also a symbol for the future.

In the Carillon, you've got small bells and you've got big bells, and it symbolizes so well that to have a good, functioning multilateral order, yes, you need big countries that have power, but you also need the small ones, and together, there is the harmony.

♪ Curry: You can hear the Netherlands Carillon played live on Sunday afternoons.

And, to hear Ed Nassor perform, keep an eye on the Washington National Cathedral's Concert Series at cathedral.org/calendar.

♪