We are proud to announce a new virtual tour of the Moogseum, led by Executive Director Michelle Moog-Koussa, and featuring the Moog modular synthesizer prototype and Herb Deutsch, who collaborated with Bob Moog on developing the pioneering synth. The tour, which celebrates the seminal development that led to a revolution in music, will take place on Sunday, December 13, 2020 at 2pm Eastern Time.

Tickets will be sold through Eventbrite and are available on a pay-what-you-can basis. The tour will be shared through a private YouTube link.  

The one hour tour will be followed by a 15 minute Q & A session with Herb.

In 1963, Herb Deutsch, a young professor of music at Hofstra University as well as an experimental jazz musician, approached Bob Moog at a music educators’ conference. That sparked a year-long discussion and collaboration with Deutsch providing guidance from a musician’s standpoint and Moog creating new technology based on those specifications. The prototype was first shown at an Audio Engineering Conference in 1964, and was then sent to Deutsch in 1965. Moog’s company, R.A. Moog, Co.,  began creating larger modular systems over the next four years, and those systems drove a revolution in the world of music. 

Deutch used the prototype synthesizer to compose for many years, then donated the instrument to The Henry Ford museum in 1982. It is on loan and being exhibited at the Moogseum through December 31, 2020, making this tour one of the last chances to see it in this unique facility. The tour will explore Bob Moog’s history leading up to his meeting with Deutsch, and will draw from the vast collection in the Bob Moog Foundation Archives. Deutsch will then join the tour from his home in Long Island, and share his memories and insights into working with Moog during this crucial moment in music history. 

“It is our great honor to feature Bob’s collaborator and friend, Herb Deutsch, and the Moog prototype synthesizer, for which he was a catalyst,” notes Michelle Moog-Koussa, Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation. “Herb represents a pivotal juncture in the world of music, during which the sonic landscape was on the verge of expanding in ways that were previously impossible. He was there, guiding Bob, in the years-long development of the revolutionary Moog synthesizer, making him an all-important figure in the world of electronic music.”

All proceeds from ticket sales go to benefit the Moogseum, which was closed for five months due to the pandemic. Tickets to the tour can be purchased here: https://bit.ly/MoogPrototypeTourTix2020

The prototype heads back to the Henry Ford at the end of the year, so don’t miss this special opportunity!