Moogseum & the Moog Foundation

For those of you who follow this type of thing and are my age or older, you may remember the amazing Moog synthesizer from back in the '70's. When I was a kid in Norwalk, CT, I remember that our middle school music teacher actually brought in a real Moog synthesizer & played it for us. Just for clarification, it is not pronounded Moog is in "moo" like a cow with a "g" on the end. It is Moog, rhymes with "vogue." A sure way to alienate Michelle Moog-Koussa, director of The Bob Moog Foundation, is to pronounce it like the ignorant masses. Conversely, she will smile deeply and count you as damn near one of the family if you say it correctly. They are based here in Asheville, NC and have remained quietly but consistantly dedicated to the work of Bob Moog, preserving his legacy & teaching about the mathmatical foundations of this electronic sound. He is credited with being the grandfather of electronic music, having made synthesizers & other instruments such as the Theramin available to "normal" people.

Recently, the board announced plans to build a Moogseum here, an archive/gallery/exhibition space/sound lab/sonic exploratorium experience downtown. The idea is that it will provide a real studio space to encounter Moog which is separate from the assembly facility, thus fostering creativity and contributing to this tourism & arts-based economy. It's really a cool idea. They are even interested in incorporating some sound & music therapy components. I volunteered to work with the board on this but haven't heard anything back. I really need to get on them about this.

Back in late February (sorry, I'm a little bit slow about getting this up information up), , the 26th actually, they hosted a fundraising open house to lure in funders and other interested parties. Thanks to my brother-in-law, Sam Kaplan who is an esteemed math professor at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, I managed to finagle an invitation. As a musician & mathmatician, Sam has a great interest in math-influenced arts & music. They gave us a tour of the factory which is an an old warehouse - you know, the kind they make "lofts" out of these days - beside the French Broad River just north of Asheville. To see all the photos from that day, see my Facebook page. Above are just a few. The Moog Foundation is just a small part of the rich music heritage in Asheville.

UPDATE UPDATE: My dear friend Les just sent me an email about the theramin. This is what he says, "funny about the moog because we just watched a documentary about theramin the other night and mr. moog was all over it. theramin w kidnapped by the kgb when he was in new york and taken back to russia and everyone thought he was dead for years. he invented the instrument while working on a kgb "body detector" or something in the early 20's." Spooky, eh?