Bob Moog foundation archives expand with major gift from UNC-Greensboro

Full announcement from the Bob Moog Foundation:

ASHEVILLE, N.C., Dec. 13, 2013 — The Music Department of the University of UNC-Greensboro has given The Bob Moog Foundation a collection of vintage synthesizer hardware and other equipment. The gift, which will be on permanent loan at the Foundation, was announced today by the Foundation’s executive director Michelle Moog-Koussa.

“We are thrilled with the University’s decision,” Moog-Koussa said. “This material is an important reflection of my father’s legacy as an innovator. He believed that great things happen at the intersection of music, science, history and innovation. We are looking forward to sharing this latest addition to our collection with the public in the near future.”

The gift includes: A custom, vintage Moog Modular synthesizer from R.A. Moog, Co., two ARP 2600s, an Aries Series 300 Modular, Oberheim OB-Xa, Korg MS-20 (Vintage), a Leader Electric LBO-32B oscilloscope, and more.

“We felt that The Bob Moog Foundation was the right place for this gift,” said Mark Engebretson, Director, A. V. Williams Electronic Music Studio at UNC-G. “Not only is historic preservation at the core of their mission, but there is ample scientific evidence, including research done here at UNC-Greensboro (The Impact of Music Education on Academic Achievement, Donald A. Hodges and Debra S. O’Connell) that students who are exposed to music and go on to study it, have significantly higher standardized tests scores in language arts and math than their peers who participated in non-musical extra-curricular activities.”

Engebretson added, “Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool is exactly the kind of community-based education that is so desperately needed right now as funding for in-school music programs has disappeared. It is our hope that the foundation can use the instruments provided as part of their education and preservation initiatives.”

Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool (DBSS), the hallmark educational project of the Bob Moog Foundation, is an innovative 10 week curriculum that teaches second grade students the physics of sound using acoustic and electronic musical instruments such as the theremin, as well as oscilloscopes. The information taught through the musical instruments is supplemented by custom educational materials developed by the BMF educational team. Through DBSS, students learn about: vibrations, waveforms, sound travel through identifying the source, medium, and receiver of sound, parameters of sound such as pitch/frequency and loudness/amplitude, the physical difference between music and noise.

In addition to the UNC-Greensboro gift, the Foundation has received additional materials from donors who support the Foundation’s education and historic preservation initiatives. Announcement of those gifts is will be forthcoming in early 2014.

The Bob Moog Foundation is a non-profit organization located in Asheville, N.C., that carries on the pioneering legacy of Robert Moog whose synthesizers revolutionized music beginning in the 1960s.

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