The Bob Moog Foundation: Igniting Creativity in Future Generations

A message From Michelle Moog-Koussa, Executive Director:

 On August 21, 2005, my father passed away after a four month battle with an aggressive brain tumor. While my family, my father's colleagues and friends were left with a profound sense of loss, we were to find that they were not alone. Legions of fans around the world stepped forth to pay tribute to the many ways this gentle genius, who they knew as Bob Moog, had effected and in many cases transformed their lives. As my father had been so humble about his career all of his life, we were a bit overwhelmed to discover the widespread impact of his work. What we came to realize is that his incredible legacy richly deserved to be carried forward through an innovative social agenda that would continue to touch people's lives for generations to come. This was the genesis of the Bob Moog Foundation.

As we approach the 6th anniversary of Bob's passing and the 5th anniversary of the Foundation, we are sharing some highlights from our archives with our fans who sign up for our eNewsletter. For a limited time subscribers will receive a special download of Bob's personal statement along with some never before seen photographs from our archives. Please visit our website to sign up.

It's important to note here that the Bob Moog Foundation and Moog Music, Inc. are two separate entities who share a common heritage and mutually supportive relationship. Moog Music, Inc. designs, manufactures and distributes the incredible Moog instruments that you'll find in the pages of this website. The Bob Moog Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Bob's family, friends, and colleagues. Read on to find out what we're all about.

The Mission of the Bob Moog Foundation is to ignite creativity at the intersection of music, science, history and innovation. We are achieving this mission through three projects:

• With our MoogLab Student Outreach project, we bring Moog instruments into schools to teach children the science behind electronic music and inspire them to create and innovate in their own ways. Through the instruments, kids are easily engaged in the principles of sound. We teach them about waveforms, frequency, timbre, amplitude, vibrations, circuitry and even a bit about electronic music history.  Check out more about MoogLab HERE.

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Our little tweaker Olivia Gilley sculpts sound in the MoogLab

• Archive Preservation Initiative - Bob Moog left behind an extensive and historically compelling archive that includes photos, schematics, prototypes, project notes, articles, correspondence and reel-to-reel tapes and more. We are working to preserve all of this precious historical material. Currently, we are working to restore and transfer the most delicate medium of the archives, the reel-to-reel tapes, thanks to two generous grants from the GRAMMY Foundation. Our goal is to bring this unique archive to life through our website, traveling exhibits and through our future Moogseum. The Museum of Making Music recently hosted an eight month exhibit featuring over 250 items from the archives, which was seen by over 20,000 people. Find out more about Bob's archives here.

             Several Items from Bob's Archives (Photo credit: Doug Babb)

• The Moogseum is planned to be both a facility in Asheville, NC and a website where the above two goals converge and the life, legacy and spirit of Bob Moog come alive in an innovative, interactive environment. Here we will honor the power of electronic music and the people, of which Bob Moog is one, who helped bring an unlimited musical medium to life. Asheville's Tourism Product Development Authority has awarded the BMF a generous lead grant to be applied for the construction of the facility. The challenging economy has made raising the remaining funding needed difficult, pushing the opening of the Moogseum into 2014 or beyond. In the meantime, we continue to grow the MoogLab and Archive projects so that both will be fully developed by the time the Moogseum is realized.

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NPR's State of the Re:Union compiled this wonderful video cast highlighting our work:

You can check out all of our great work at www.moogfoundation.org. You can help support our projects by making a donation here.