Musical Innovator Robert Moog to Speak at UNCA

UNC Asheville's Arts and Ideas Program will host a talk by Robert Moog, recent Technical Grammy award winner, at 12:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, in UNCA's Owen Conference Center. Moog’s talk will feature demonstrations of his newest portable synthesizer as well as the theramin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. The event is free and open to the public.

Moog began his musical career building theramins as a teenager and founding the R.A. Moog Company in 1954. A decade later he invented the first widely adopted electronic instrument, the Moog music synthesizer. The instrument’s big break came in 1969, when musician Walter (now Wendy) Carlos had a huge, Grammy-winning hit with "Switched-on Bach," popularizing electronic music with Moog-made renditions of Johann Sebastian Bach. Moog’s synthesizer continued to garner attention as it was used on the Beatles’ "Abbey Road" album and on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s "A Clockwork Orange." Moog next introduced the Minimoog, the world’s first portable electronic synthesizer, revolutionizing the sound of contemporary pop music.

In addition to receiving the 2002 Technical Grammy award, Moog has received the Silver Medal of The Audio Engineering Society, the Trustee’s Award of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and Billboard Magazine Trendsetter’s Award. He is founder and chief technical officer of Moog Music Inc. The Asheville-based company designs and builds theremins, MIDI interfaces, analog effects modules and analog synthesizers.

For more information, call Wayne Ewing, UNCA Humanities Program adjunct professor, at 828/232-5039.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Wayne Ewing, UNCA Humanities Program Adjunct Professor, 828/232-5309
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526