David Van Koevering

David Van Koevering (1940-2018) has passed away January 30th near his home in Tennessee following heart issues at the age of 77. 

Born into a family of evangelical musical travellers, young David Van Koevering toured with his parents as "Little David," earning a widespread reputation for his energetic and motivational preaching. He began an interest in electronics and soon after, constructed his own robot. This began a lifelong hobby collecting robots of all kinds — a collection now numbering in the hundreds. Following in the footsteps of his family, he was a skilled performer on 23 instruments, performing on bells, violin, keyboards, the musical saw, and various exotic instruments he would add to the family collection.

Touring as "The Swiss Bell Ringers” with his wife and two children, the Van Koevering performances with instruments of both traditional and modern designs — one of these being the electronic Theremin. Soon after, he found his theremin's maker, Robert Moog, who was also producing a very new instrument — the first commercial synthesizer.