Venice Performing Arts Center


Eijsbouts Mobile Carillon	Andrew W. Crawford Memorial Carillon

Links to Carillon Inventories
GCNA	Tower Bells	Bok Tower Gardens

The instrument was made by Royal Eisjsbouts, the world’s largest bell foundry in 1991 and 1992. It was a demonstration instrument to show people what a carillon is on the ground since they are usually hidden in towers. The carillon was sold to Chime Master in 2008 and shipped to the United States. It was deactivated by Chime Master in 2018 and bought by Kimiko T. Crawford to honor her husband, Andrew W. Crawford. Their son, Wylie Crawford, was assistant university carillonneur for the University of Chicago for 32 years before retiring and moving to Florida.

The carillon was installed at the Venice Performing Arts Center and dedicated May 5, 2019 by Geert D’hollander, who is the resident carillonneur at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales.

References
2008 “'Bon Voyage' Bells: Carillon sets sail for USA," Carillon News 79(4):8 (April 2008)
February 11, 2008: Today the Royal Eijsbouts Traveling Carillon was rechristened the Chime Master—Eijsbouts Mobile Millennium Carillon and embarked on an ocean voyage to the United States. The four-octave carillon will arrive at the Chime Master Systems headquarters near Lancaster, Ohio, on March 1.
The carillon is a manual-play performance instrument augmented with an automatic-play system for preconcert entertainment. Chime Master has acquired a semitruck and custom-modified trailer to move the bells. The carillon is scheduled for several concerts and dedications this year. Chime Master is accepting bookings for open dates in 2008 and the years beyond.
The premier performance of the Mobile Millennium Carillon will be April 4, 2008, at the inaugural First Fridays concert series in downtown Lancaster. The featured performer is Dutch carillonist Rosemarie Seuntiëns, playing a program of selections from her album Roaming Bells as well as new arrangements of American pop and jazz standards.

2008 Mobile Millennium Carillon on Parade, July 4, 2008 (video, there are several other videos of this on youtube, Summer of 2017 update: This complete rig is now for sale!)

2009 "Chime master brings heavy metal," The Times-Standard, July 13, 2009
The Royal Eijsbouts Traveling Carillon, a musical instrument consisting of 23 bronze bells played through a keyboard, arrived in the USA from Asten, The Netherlands on March of 2008.
A semi-truck and customized trailer met the carillon in Norfolk, Va., to finish the trip to its new home base at Chime Master Systems Headquarters in Ohio.

2019 "Ring my bells," Herald-Tribune, May 2, 2019
48-bell carillon to be dedicated in Venice

2021 "Ring Them Bells!" San Diego Troubadour, January 2021
There have been three traveling carillons in the United States in recent memory. The largest one still rings out, but no longer travels, as it retired to a more sedentary life in sunny Florida. It was on April 20, 2019, the Chime Master Mobile Millennium Carillon officially changed ownership to become the Andrew W. Crawford Memorial Carillon. It now resides at a fixed site at the main entrance of the Venice Performing Arts Center in Venice, Florida. It toured for over a dozen years as the Royal Eijsbouts Traveling Carillon.
This set of commuting bells was originally cast in Asten, the Netherlands, at the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry in 1991 and completed in 1992. The 48 bells were mounted in a traveling trailer and toured Europe as the Eijsbouts Traveling Carillon for several years before being sold to Chime Master in 2007. Re-christened as the Chime Master Mobile Millennium Carillon, the instrument toured at Renaissance fairs, churches, botanical gardens, and universities throughout the United States and Canada. The four-octave instrument has 48 bells with the largest being a 2000-pound, 46-inch diameter Bourdon bell tuned to F natural. The full weight of the carillon is 26,000 pounds.

Andrew W. Crawford Memorial Carillon, Venice Performing Arts Center