Michelle Moog Koussa is the Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation, an organisation set up in her father’s memory to carry out educational work in the community and curate and display his extensive archive, and the many instruments he developed in his long career.
In recent years, the BMF has increasingly touched the lives and minds of young people interested in electronic sounds, as well as preserving her father’s legacy for current and future generations to enjoy and draw inspiration from via the Moogseum located in Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
Show Notes
Chapters
00:34 - Introduction
01:05 - Why Start The Foundation?
04:30 - The Three Parts Of The Foundation
07:20 - Unusual Items In The Archive
09:16 - What did you learn about your father from the archive?
10:11 - Who inspired Bob Moog?
14:05 - The Moogseum
23:01 - What Synth’s Are Available?
24:12 - The Electronic Voyager documentary
28:17 - Did making the movie reveal anything new about your father?
30:15 - The impact of the Minimoog
33:21 - When can we see The Electronic Voyager Film?
34:12 - How important is the work of the BMF and other similar organisations?
https://moogfoundation.org
https://moogseum.org
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/electronic-voyager
Moog musical clips provided by:
- Danniielle O’Connor (Moog Voyager) - http://pulseeternal.com
- Ernesto Romeo (Minimoog Model D) - https://klaussband.bandcamp.com
- Moot Booxlé (Memorymoog & Minimoog) - http://mootbooxle.bandcamp.com
- Suzanne Aston (Moog Voyager XL) - http://synthsbythesea.com/wp
- Brian Oliva (Theremin) - https://www.getsemanimusic.com
Michelle Moog Koussa - Biog
Michelle Moog-Koussa, Bob Moog’s third daughter, was born in 1968 just as Wendy Carlos released her groundbreaking album Switched-On Bach, which brought the Moog synthesizer to the fore of the public consciousness. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation, a position she has held for the past 16 years. She has grown the Foundation from a grass roots, volunteer-based organization to one that has nationally recognized goals and accomplishments, a staff of seven, and a worldwide network of supporters. She has been the driving force behind the Foundation’s vision to carry Bob Moog’s pioneering legacy forward by igniting creativity at the intersection of music, science, history, and innovation.
At the forefront of this vision is the Foundation’s hallmark educational project, Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool. Michelle stewarded this project from an occasional volunteer outreach effort to a standardised 10-week curriculum that teaches the science of sound through the magic of music to second grade children in nearly 100 classrooms in Asheville, North Carolina. While Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool currently serves 3,000 children a year, Michelle is leading the Foundation to expand this project nationwide.
Michelle also oversees the preservation of the Bob Moog Foundation Archives, a vast array of historic materials ranging from photos to schematics, from correspondence to prototypes. The Bob Moog Foundation shares the materials with other research institutions and museums, and opened its Moogseum in May 2019, and interactive facility where the Foundation’s educational and historic preservation initiatives converge.
Michelle has written the foreword for The Synthesizer, a book by acclaimed writer and historian, Mark Vail, and has been featured on numerous videos and podcasts. Michelle gave a talk at TEDx Asheville in 2017 entitled, 'Inspired: The Journey Of Discovering My Famous Father', which can be viewed here.
Interviewer: Rob Puricelli - Biog
Rob Puricelli is a Music Technologist and Instructional Designer who has a healthy obsession with classic synthesizers and their history. In conjunction with former Fairlight Studio Manager Peter Wielk, he fixes and restores Fairlight CMIs so that they can enjoy prolonged and productive lives with new owners.
He also writes reviews and articles for his website, failedmuso.com, and other music-related publications, as well as hosting a weekly livestream on YouTube for the Pro Synth Network and guesting on numerous music technology podcasts and shows.
Outside of his regular day job, he works alongside a number of manufacturers, demonstrating their products and lecturing at various educational and vocational establishments about music technology.
Twitter: @failedmuso
Instagram: @failedmuso
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/failedmuso/
About the Electronic Music podcast channel
On this channel we feature some of the pioneers of the industry, interview musicians and talk about retro and current gear.
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