Spicer Joins Board Of Synthesizer Pioneer Moog's Foundation

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Framingham Mayor Yvonne Spicer has joined the board of a charity founded by Robert Moog, the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer instrument.

Spicer joined the Asheville, N.C.-based Bob Moog Foundation board this month along with Michael Whalen, a composer and former Berklee College of Music professor.

In a press release, the foundation said Spicer was chosen for her background in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and business development. Spicer is a former Framingham teacher, and worked in education programming at the Boston Museum of Science before being elected the city's first mayor in 2017.

The Moog foundation's mission is to "ignite creativity at the intersection of music, science, history and innovation." The foundation runs a museum, archives and a school for children focusing on physics and sound engineering.

Moog, who died in 2005, was an engineer who got his start in the 1950s by designing and selling Theremins. He debuted his famed synthesizer, whose size and relatively low price gave birth to the electronic music genre, in 1964.