© 2025 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Carrying On The Moog Legacy, Meet Michelle Moog-Koussa

WUNC | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published October 3, 2016 at 12:01 PM EDT

Meet Michelle Moog-Koussa.

More than 50 years ago, Robert Moog revolutionized electronic music with the invention of the Moog synthesizer. It was one of the first widely-used electronic instruments and has been featured in music by artists ranging from The Beatles to jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. But despite his immense career success, Moog kept his professional and personal lives separate. In fact, it was not until his death that his daughter, Michelle Moog-Koussa, began to learn about his professional influence.

For the past decade, she has dedicated her time to building and running the Bob Moog Foundation, an Asheville-based nonprofit that celebrates his legacy through preservation and education. Host Frank Stasio talks with Michelle Moog-Koussa about growing up with Bob Moog and how she built and forged her own 

Here's Bob Moog demonstrating the minimoog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z0cbMkOvY0

Robert (Bob) Moog invented the Moog Synthesizer, an instrument that revolutionized electronic music. Here he is at his workbench.
Courtesy of Michelle Moog-Koussa /
Robert (Bob) Moog invented the Moog Synthesizer, an instrument that revolutionized electronic music. Here he is at his workbench.
Bob Moog playing a theramin in 1952. He began designing his own theramins while still in high school, setting off a career as an engineer and music maker.
Courtesy of Michelle Moog-Koussa /
Bob Moog playing a theramin in 1952. He began designing his own theramins while still in high school, setting off a career as an engineer and music maker.
Michelle Moog-Koussa with her father Bob Moog at her wedding in 1993.
Courtesy of Michelle Moog-Koussa /
Michelle Moog-Koussa with her father Bob Moog at her wedding in 1993.
Bob Moog and his family in 1974.
Courtesy of Michelle Moog-Koussa /
Bob Moog and his family in 1974.

Copyright 2016 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio