Our Executive Director, Michelle Moog-Koussa, will present Insights Into An Innovator: Bob Moog as part of NAMM’s TEC Talks at the 2017 NAMM Convention. The presentation, based on materials recently uncovered in the Moog family’s archive of historical materials, will showcase several of the archive’s thousands of photos and documents, many of them never before shared publicly. The event will be held at 10:30am on Saturday, January 21, 2017 in room 202A of the Anaheim Convention Center.
Through the presentation, Ms. Moog-Koussa will reveal formative elements in her father’s early life that led to his career as synthesizer pioneer, sharing a unique selection of materials that includes vintage family photos, as well as documents including various school records, and correspondence between a young Bob Moog and close relatives. Michelle shared some related items from the family archives last summer through the Foundation’s Bob Moog Timeline. Since that time, hundreds of new items have been discovered, offering unprecedented insight into Bob’s young inclinations that lead to his later career.
Young Bob Moog in the family wagon with his dog Scrappy as his mother Shirley Moog looks on, 1944.
Michelle has always been interested in her father being understood as a complete human being, beyond the shell of an iconic figure. She has been enlightened by some of the discoveries she has made in the last six months through exploring thousands of new items in a vast collection of materials gifted to her by her mother, Shirleigh Moog. Debuting these new glimpses of Dr. Moog at NAMM is particularly powerful for Moog-Koussa. NAMM was always a very meaningful event for my father, and for the past 10 years it has been for me as well. Its only fitting to reveal much of this material for the first time among the industry that played such an integral part in the Moog legacy.
The Bob Moog Foundation, founded by the inventor’s family, friends, and colleagues, recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Its mission is to ignite creativity at the intersection of science, music, and innovation, enlightening over 1,500 second grade students per year through their innovative science curriculum, Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool. They also maintain the Bob Moog Foundation Archive, a robust collection of schematics, instruments, prototypes, notebooks, photos, vintage catalogs and more.
Headquartered in Asheville, NC, the Bob Moog Foundation is an independent 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization and is not associated with the company Moog Music, Inc.