Tribute concert to benefit Moog Foundation will feature three fully restored vintage instruments

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This looks awesome. The show is Thursday, May 8, at The Isis in West Asheville, starting at 8 p.m. Press release:

Virtuoso synthesist Erik Norlander and his band The Galactic Collective will perform a benefit tribute concert for the Bob Moog Foundation with three very special guests: fully restored vintage instruments from the Bob Moog Foundation Archives, including a 1967 Moog Modular, an early Minimoog Model D, and an extremely rare Moog Apollo.

Michelle Moog-Koussa, Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation, notes, “The convergence of the Moog modular, the Minimoog and the Moog Apollo in one performance is nearly unprecedented. Not since Keith Emerson toured with a prototype Apollo in the early 70s have these they been heard together in live performance, making the Tribute to Dr. Bobconcert in Asheville on Thursday a historic occasion”.

The 1967 R. A. Moog Co. Modular  is an icon known far and wide among synthesizer enthusiasts as a seminal instrument that started a revolution in music. The BMF modular is on permanent loan from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It was built for the first electronic music studio in the state, and hand delivered by Bob Moog.

The Minimoog is perhaps the most inconic synthesizers of all times. It was donated to the Foundation by Asheville composer and arranger Tom Coppola, who used it to record the signature three-note “Duracell sound.” The Minimoog was the first mass-produced commercially available synthesizer that the working musician could afford.

The Moog Apollo is one of the few of its kind in the world. This model is a newly and fully restored 1974 instrument and was a prototype for the Polymoog. The Apollo is one of the earliest poly synths, synthesizers that could play more than one note at a time.

“We take that for granted in 2014, but in the early ’70s, this was real innovation,” Norlander said. “The Apollo is an uncompromising feat of musical majesty. Every note that it sounds speaks volumes. And the build quality, from the switches down to the actual key bed, is equally uncompromised, a real musical instrument and true to the legacy of Bob Moog.”

Bob Moog’s 80th birthday would have been May 23. As the date approaches, musical acts converge in an evening that celebrates Bob’s enduring legacy of sonic inspiration.

Erik Norlander is a progressive rock keyboardist, composer and producer from California. The Galactic Collective is a reimagining of his favorite instrumental songs written for his other band Rocket Scientists, and his wife and collaborator, singer Lana Lane.

Norlander has produced over 30 albums and toured and recorded as the keyboardist and co-writer for the Asia spinoff, Asia Featuring John Payne. Norlander’s music is a compelling synthesis of thematic soundscapes, melodic composition and progressive jazz-rock fireworks.

He has personally led sound design efforts on several major-brand synthesizers.

Opening for the band is Drew Heller, guitarist for Afro-fusion Toubab Krewe, joined by his father, Grammy award winning producer/composer Steven Heller. Tickets are $18, with proceeds benefiting Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool, the Foundation’s hallmark educational project teaching the science of sound with the magic of music.

Steven Heller was a longtime friend and colleague of Bob Moog. Heller has won two Grammy awards, as well as a number of national awards for his music and recordings.

He was production music supervisor for the 1995 Miramax film “The Journey of August King,” and wrote and produced the theme music for “Conversations” and “Evening Rounds,” listener call-in programs on the public radio station WCQS.

This show will be both standing and seated. Tickets are available here: http://isisasheville.com/events/tribute-to-dr-bob-erik-norlanders-galactic-collective/

All proceeds from A Tribute to Dr. Bob benefit Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool (DBSS), the Foundation’s flagship educational program, an innovative 10-week curriculum that teaches second grade students the physics of sound using acoustic and electronic musical instruments. The curriculum is  supplemented by custom educational materials developed by the BMF educational team.

Students also learn how to become scientific observers using examples from Bob Moog’s own science notebooks, as well as those from other famous inventors, all while participating in a STEAM- (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) based education.

Learn more about the DBSS here: http://moogfoundation.org/projects/dr-bobssoundschool/