It was this revelation of his reach and impact on so many people that motivated Michelle Moog-Koussa and her family to form the Bob Moog Foundation. Now in its 13th year, the BMF honors Bob Moog through its stated mission “to ignite creativity at the intersection of music, science, history and innovation.”
Robert Arthur Moog, better known as Bob, was an American engineer best known for his work with synthesizers and electronic music. Moog didn’t invent the synthesizer, but he did revolutionize it. Before Bob, synthesizers were huge, unwieldy machines that took up an entire room and cost far too much to make them commercially viable.
Visiting Asheville, North Carolina, in December, I walked past a sandwich board that read, “Synth you’re here, come on in.” It was a pop-up store selling T-shirts, mugs, and other memorabilia commemorating one of the town’s most famous citizens, electronic music pioneer Bob Moog.
Robert Moog was a game-changing electronic music pioneer and the father of four children (and one step-daughter), including daughter Michelle Moog-Koussa, executive director of the Moogseum, a brand-new facility opening on what would have been Moog’s 85th birthday, Thursday (May 23), in Moog’s adopted hometown of Asheville, N.C.
Leading up to one of the earliest Bele Chere festivals — the street party took place in downtown Asheville 1979-2013 — a couple of local musicians decided to reach out to Robert Moog.