Phoebe Legere

Last updated

Phoebe Hemenway Legere
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArtist
Notable work Foundationfornewamericanart.org

Phoebe Hemenway Legere is an American pioneer of multi-disciplinary art. [1] [2] She is a Juilliard-educated composer, [3] soprano, pianist and accordionist, painter, [4] poet, [5] and film maker. A graduate of Vassar College [6] with a four octave vocal range, [7] [8] [9] [10] Legere has recorded for Mercury Records in England, and for Epic, Island, Rizzoli, Funtone, ESP Disk and Einstein Records in the United States. Legere plays seven musical instruments [11] and has released 15 CDs of original music. [12] She has appeared on National Public Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, PBS's City Arts, WNYC's Soundcheck, Charlie Rose and in films by Troma, Island Pictures, Rosa von Praunheim, Ela Troyano and Ivan Galietti, Abel Ferrara, Jonathan Demme, Ivan Reitman and many others. [13] Legere is of Acadian and Abenaki descent. She is a standard bearer of the Acadian and Abenaki renaissance in America. [14]

Contents

History

Legere's parents were artists, her grandparents were musicians. She began piano lessons at age 3, and learned the techniques of oil painting and draftsmanship when she was age 5. By age 9 Legere was a professional musician. [15] [16] She had her debut at Carnegie Hall at age 16. [17] At 17 she became the Resident Composer for the Wooster Group working 9-5 M-F with Willem Defoe, Spalding Gray, Richard Schechner, Victor Turner and Ron Vawter. This grounding in experimental theater, performance art and music was the basis for Phoebe's MONAD, an all girl Performance Art rock band. While still a teenager she invented "Total Art Synthesis" a Universal Field Theory of the Arts. She was signed to Nemperor/Epic Records by Nat Weiss who was co-founder of Apple Records with Brian Epstein and John Lennon. She was a cultural leader in the East Village Renaissance. Her band Monad performed opening night at the Pyramid Club on Avenue A. She had formative friendships with Larry Rivers, Allen Ginsburg, Peter Beard, Don Cherry, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Crystal Field, David Bowie and many others.

As the opening act for David Bowie on his 1990 Sound+Vision Tour US tour, Legere played her original songs for 20,000 people a night. [18] A huge forklift brought a white grand piano to the stage, where she performed with her seminal punk-rock band, MONAD:The Four Nurses of the Apocalypse. [19] [20]

In 2000, with composer [21] Morgan Powell, she co-wrote The Waterclown– a musical setting of her epic poem about water issues, "The Waterclown" – for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

Beginning in 2001, [22] Legere worked as Head Writer, on-air host, and interviewer for Roulette TV, a collection of video programs broadcast online and on New York City cable television, [23] that captures the creative process of live performance at "the extreme frontier edge of art and music" and is dedicated to experimental art and music. [24] Legere's musical invention the Sneakers of Samothrace were the subject of one episode of the programs on 9 December 2007. She was interviewed afterward by David Behrman, an American composer and pioneer of computer music, revealing that her first job was resident composer for The Wooster Group and discussing in detail their influence on her art making. [25]

Legere is Founder and archivist for the New York Underground Museum (founded 2006). [26]

In 2013, she created The Shamancycle, a four-wheeled alternative vehicle designed in the form of a moving giant eagle sculpture constructed from repurposed metal and powered by alternative energy and having room for 15 people, the idea for which came to her in a dream. [27]

In 2015, Legere appeared on It's Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise, an HBO documentary produced by Lena Dunham about Hilary Knight who is best known as the illustrator of Kay Thompson's Eloise series of children's books. [28] [29]

Legere was touring again in 2017, [30] [31] bringing art and music to the children in low income communities on behalf of her nonprofit Foundation for New American Art, founded in 2016. [32]

Legere, who has Native American heritage, [33] has been an outspoken advocate for female, gay, Native American, and universal civil rights. She will represent North America at Cannes.[ needs update ] [34]

She wrote and starred in the play Speed Queen: The Joe Carstairs Story, performing as multiple characters in a musical about the life of Marion Barbara 'Joe' Carstairs (1900-1993), the wealthy British power boat racer known for her speed and lavish lifestyle. The production combined storytelling, painting, sculpture, movie stars, costumes, and music. [35] Legere performed this transdisciplinary play seven times between March 7 and March 24, 2018, at Dixon Place, in the main performance space of the New York City theater organization dedicated to the development of artwork from a broad range of performers and artists. [36]

Personal life

Legere is single. She has never been married. [37]

Discography

Plays

Filmography

See also

List of people in Playboy 1980–1989

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Oliveros</span> American composer and musician

Pauline Oliveros was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Threadgill</span> American composer, saxophonist and flautist

Henry Threadgill is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist. He came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles rooted in jazz but with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating other genres of music. He has performed and recorded with several ensembles: Air, Aggregation Orb, Make a Move, the seven-piece Henry Threadgill Sextett, the twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, Very Very Circus, X-75, and Zooid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annea Lockwood</span> American classical composer

Annea Lockwood is a New Zealand-born American composer and academic musician. She taught electronic music at Vassar College. Her range is vast and often includes microtonal, electro-acoustic soundscapes and vocal music, as well as recordings of natural found sounds. She has also recorded Fluxus-inspired pieces involving burning or drowning pianos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vision Festival</span> Annual festival of experimental music, art, film and dance held in New York City

The Vision Festival is the world's premier festival of experimental music, art, film and dance, held annually in May/June on the Lower East Side of New York City from 1996 to 2011, in Brooklyn from 2012 to 2014, and returning to Manhattan in 2015. It usually consists of between thirty and sixty performances, spread out over a number of days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Palmer</span> American musician and performance artist

Amanda MacKinnon Palmer is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and performance artist who is the lead vocalist, pianist, and lyricist of the duo The Dresden Dolls. She performs as a solo artist and was also a member of the duo Evelyn Evelyn and the lead singer and songwriter of Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. She has gained a cult fanbase and was one of the first musical artists to popularize the use of crowdfunding websites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Thompson</span> American author, singer, dancer, actress, and choreographer (1909–1998)

Kay Thompson was an American author, singer, vocal arranger, vocal coach, composer, musician, dancer, actress, and choreographer. She became famous for creating the Eloise children's books and for her role in the movie Funny Face.

Flying Fish Records was a record label founded in Chicago in 1974 that specialized in folk, blues, and country music. In the 1990s the label was sold to Rounder Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Williams (actress)</span> American actress and singer (1911–1973)

Hannah Williams was an American actress, singer, and comedian and former wife of bandleader Roger Wolfe Kahn and Hall of Fame boxer Jack Dempsey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz</span> Musical artist

Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz are an American folk music duo known for performing traditional music from the early American canon of bluegrass, gospel, and old time music. The duo, however, on occasion does record original songs and music by contemporary songwriters. They live in the small village of Tanner, West Virginia. Tracy Schwarz was a member of the New Lost City Ramblers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luann de Lesseps</span> American reality television personality

Luann de Lesseps is an American television personality, singer, model, and author. She is best known as an original cast member of the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of New York City, featuring in the first 13 of 14 seasons since its 2008 premiere. In 2018, she began headlining "Countess and Friends", a cabaret show of her own making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Coffin</span> American painter

Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin (1850–1930) was an American artist, educator and philanthropist who is known for her paintings of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Well-educated and accomplished, she was one of the "New Women" of the 19th century who explored opportunities not traditionally available to women. She was the first person in the United States to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree and was the first woman admitted to the Hague Academy of Fine Arts. She opened a school in Nantucket that had been only open to men and offered several types of trade and crafts work courses to both genders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arleen Schloss</span> American performance artist

Arleen Schloss is an American performance artist, video/film artist, sound poet, director and curator of the lower Manhattan art, video, performance art and music scenes. Schloss began her influence through A's – an interdisciplinary loft space in New York City that became a hub for music, exhibitions, performance art, films and videos. Artists and performers such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eric Bogosian, Phoebe Legere, Sonic Youth, Liquid Liquid, Carolee Schnemann, Alan Vega, Martin Wong, and Aei Wei Wei performed, exhibited and got their start at A's. In the 1990s A's became A's Wave where website works and other forms of digital media were shown.

Maria Chavez is an improviser, curator and sound artist born 1980 in Lima, Peru. Her family moved to Texas when she was two years old. The following year doctors found and released liquid in her ears alleviating what had been a serious impediment to her speech and hearing. By age 16 she began working with sound and turntables. Her sound installations, visual objects and live turntable performances focus on the values of the accident and its unique, complicated possibilities with sound emitting machinery like the turntable. Influenced by improvisation in contemporary art, her work extends outside of the sound world to straddle varied disciplines of interest. The sound installations and live turntable performances of Maria Chavez focus on the paradox of time and the present moment, with many influences stemming from improvisation in contemporary art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julien Baker</span> American rock musician (born 1995)

Julien Rose Baker is an American indie rock singer and guitarist. Her music is noted for its moody quality and confessional lyrical style, as well as frank explorations of topics including Christianity, addiction, mental illness, and human nature. She has received six Grammy Award nominations and three wins as a member of Boygenius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roulette Intermedium</span>

Roulette Intermedium is a performing arts and new music venue located in Brooklyn, New York City. Founded in 1978, it has been located in the neighborhoods of Tribeca and SoHo in Manhattan, and now resides in a renovated theater in downtown Brooklyn. Roulette is a nonprofit organization focusing on fostering experimental dance, new music, and performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe Bridgers</span> American musician (born 1994)

Phoebe Lucille Bridgers is an American singer-songwriter. Her indie folk music typically centers around acoustic guitar and electronic production, with melancholic lyrical themes. She has received four Grammy Awards from eleven nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Rogers</span> American musician (born 1994)

Margaret Debay Rogers is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from Easton, Maryland. After her song "Alaska" was played to artist-in-residence Pharrell Williams during a master class at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, she gained widespread recognition. She has released two independent albums, The Echo (2012) and Blood Ballet (2014), and three studio albums, Heard It in a Past Life (2019), Surrender (2022) and Don't Forget Me (2024). She was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2020.

Gelsey Bell is an American singer, songwriter, and actress, best known for her experimental music, as well as her portrayal of Princess Mary in the 2016 Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 and her performance in the original cast of Ghost Quartet.

Frankie Mann is an American electronic music composer and performance artist. Mann was a part of the New York City avant-garde music scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Mann was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1955 and studied electronic music at Oberlin College and Mills College, where she studied with David Behrman and Robert Ashley. Mann's work was released by the record label Lovely Music, Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe Judge</span> American journalist

Phoebe Valentine Judge is an American journalist, best known as the host and co-creator of the podcasts Criminal and This Is Love.

References

  1. ↑ Holden, Stephen (9 April 1991). "Review/Cabaret; Phoebe Legere Flaunts Contradictions". New York Times. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  2. ↑ Boa, Vienna; Legere, Phoebe (4 March 2013). "Art, Music, Money – Phoebe Legere with Vienna Boa". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Dyroff, Denny (3 August 2017). "On Stage: Phoebe Legere really is unique". The Unionville Times. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  4. ↑ Legere, Phoebe. "Artist, Phoebe Legere" . Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Ponce, Roberto (25 May 2012). "Phoebe Legere, cabaret transgresor que reverdece". Proceso (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "Cabaret's New Star". Where New York. March 1991. p. 22. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Vassar Historian (24 April 1987). "A Documentary Chronicle of Vassar College" . Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  8. ↑ Holden, Stephen (19 August 1988). "A New Generation Of Performers Is Revitalizing Cabarets". New York Times. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  9. ↑ Lippencott, Procter. "Singer Steals Show". New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  10. ↑ Szabo, Julia (17 April 1987). "Performer Phoebe Legere Returns To Vassar". Miscellany News, Volume LXXVII, Number 18. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  11. ↑ "A History of the Accordion in Americana Music". Accordion Americana. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  12. ↑ Kenney, Jay (21 August 2015). "Phoebe Legere Bringing Cajun Music and More to Orleans, Mass". Limelight Magazine. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  13. ↑ Wildermann, Patrick (20 November 2012). "Deutsche schmecken gut". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  14. ↑ Forson, Kofi (June 2008). "The Demystification of Phoebe Legere: Language and Light". Whitehot Magazine. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  15. ↑ "Phoebe Legere's Old New York". BlackBook. 14 February 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  16. ↑ Lawrence, Josh (2 October 1997). "The Real Phoebe Legere". The East Hampton Star. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  17. ↑ "Accordion Queen Phoebe Legere" (English language interview aired 24 October 2017). The Music Room on WVUD (University of Delaware). 8 August 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  18. ↑ Legere, Phoebe (13 January 2016). "'I Started to Fall Backwards': My Faint Recollection of Opening For David Bowie". Bedford + Bowery (based on an interview as told to Frank Mastropolo).
  19. ↑ von Bernewitz, Robert (4 March 2017). "Phoebe Legere - Singer/Songwriter" (Interview transcript). Musicguy247: A celebration of people involved in music. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  20. ↑ Cooper, Michael (26 May 1996). "NEIGBORHOOD[sic] REPORT: LOWER EAST SIDE/EAST VILLAGE; Old Favorite Wheezes Back Into Bohemia". New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  21. ↑ "Powell, Morgan (1938-)". The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  22. ↑ "Hello Mrs. President presented by Phoebe Legere". www.accordionusa.com. August 2004. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  23. ↑ "ROULETTE TV". Roulette TV. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  24. ↑ Kelly, Louise (9 May 2015). "Phoebe Legere "Marijuana Lollipop" Show - Opening Night of Big Gay Bay Area Tour". SanJose.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  25. ↑ Roulette Intermedium (9 December 2007). "Phoebe Legere". Vimeo. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  26. ↑ von Burden, Zora (2010). Women of the Underground: Music: Cultural Innovators Speak for Themselves. San Francisco, CA: Manic D Press, Inc. ISBN   978-1-933149-19-6 . Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  27. ↑ "Shamancycle" . Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  28. ↑ Stanley, Alessandra (22 March 2015). "Review: 'It's Me, Hilary' Documentary Spotlights Eloise's Illustrator". New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  29. ↑ Zuckerman, Esther (18 March 2015). "'Eloise' illustrator Hilary Knight talks new HBO documentary and his bond with Lena Dunham". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  30. ↑ Leighton, Anne (26 April 2017). "Phoebe Legere is coming to town". Bridgeport Banner w Rob Sullivan. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  31. ↑ Clyde, Beth Ann (27 June 2017). "Phoebe Legere Returns to Her Roots". Long Island Pulse. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  32. ↑ Legere, Phoebe. "A Letter From Our Executive Director". Foundation for New American Art. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  33. ↑ Hagan, Debbie (16 May 2017). "Returning to Her Roots". Merrimack Valley Magazine. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  34. ↑ Afterglow Provincetown Live Performance Art Festival (28 June 2017). "Phoebe Legere". AfterglowFestival.org. Provincetown, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  35. ↑ "Kickstarter: Joe Carstairs Trans Heiress Musucal". Curve Magazine. 11 September 2017. Archived from the original on 25 December 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  36. ↑ Dixon Place (26 December 2017). "SPEED QUEEN: THE JOE CARSTAIRS STORY - Written and Performed by Phoebe Legere". DixonPlace.org. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  37. ↑ @legere (2 September 2022). "Register" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  38. ↑ "Phoebe Legere, Blue Curtain: Magically 14th Street". Roulette Intermedium. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  39. ↑ "Blind Pursuits". DRAM (part of Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc.). Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  40. ↑ "Blind Pursuits: Jim Staley with Phoebe Legere and Borah Bergman". Roulette Intermedium. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  41. ↑ "Morgan Powell, The Common Root: Tone Road Ramblers with text and vocals by Phoebe Legere". Roulette Intermedium. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  42. ↑ Leighton, Anne (9 March 2017). "Phoebe Legere". Anne Leighton - Media * Music Services * Motivation. Retrieved 23 November 2017. Phoebe Legere's new Americana CD "Heart of Love" is out on Valentine's Day.
  43. ↑ Litt, Larry (12 December 2013). "Shakespeare & Elizabeth I: The Reality Show". New York Theatre Wire. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  44. ↑ Parr, Nicole (24 October 2017). "Accordion Queen Phoebe Legere". Radio station WVUD at the University of Delaware. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  45. ↑ Magnotta, Ernie (25 May 2015). "Review: "The Toxic Avenger Part II' (1989), Blu-Ray Special Edition From Troma Entertainment". Cinema Retro. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  46. ↑ Canby, Vincent (10 November 1989). "A Self-Doubting Monster Fights the Forces of Evil". New York Times. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  47. ↑ "Marquis de Slime". Imdb.com. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  48. ↑ "The Bar Channel". Vimeo.com. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.