Phoebe Hemenway Legere’s Art of the #CharlesRiver Watershed ***(9/24) Phoebe Hemenway Legere, Medfield Cultural Council grantee (2020), will be showing her art at Dwight Derby House.
Journey to the Heart of Hometown USA:
Phoebe Hemenway Legere’s Art of the Charles River Watershed w/ Musical Performance to Follow
Artist, Composer, Educator, Phoebe Hemenway Legere, Medfield Cultural Council grantee (2020), will be showing her art at Dwight Derby House.
September 24th, 5 pm to 7 pm, Dwight Derby House: You are invited to attend the Art Opening.
The following afternoon, Sept. 25th, Medfield Day, interdisciplinary artist Phoebe Legere will be playing her original songs at 4pm at Medfield Hospital.
Legere’s “Journey to the Heart of Medfield” began with Richard DeSorgher, President Emeritus of the Medfield Historical Society.
Legere says: ”Richard told me fascinating stories about the history of Medfield. I learned about Medfield’s dedication to culture, to the environment, & to social justice. I was deeply touched by Medfield’s respect for and commitment to the humane care of the mentally challenged.
“I’m from Massachusetts, so I knew that the crème de la crème of 19th century American painters spent time in Medfield. Like Innes, Bunker and Sargent, I was carried away by the dance of sunlight on the Charles.”
Phoebe Legere’s “Hometown USA” paintings include:
~ Captivity Narrative author and Puritan icon Mary Rowlandson runs, a ghostly apparition in a gorgeous field.
~ A handsome white stallion from the Norfolk Hunt Club prances in a party hat.
~ A Maenad from Medfield Hospital floats out of an upper story window to join an ecstatic Bacchanal.
*Artist Ron Gustavson of Medfield will also be showing his art in the Hometown Show at the Dwight Derby House.
Ron is a member and former president of the Medfield Lions Club, the chair of the Cultural Council, and graduate of Medfield High School, attended Vesper George School of Art, and U. Mass Dartmouth.
*Also appearing on the inaugural music stage on Sept. 25 at Medfield Hospital will be Medfield virtuoso and educator, Shane Wood.
*All proceeds from sales of Phoebe Hemenway Legere’s Journey to the Heart of Hometown paintings go to her Foundation for New American Art, a 501(c)3 that brings free art and music lessons to the children of low-income communities.
www.foundationfornewamericanart.org
Phoebe performing George Gershwin’s “Our Love is Here to Stay.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tnrOU1gQ8
PHOEBE LEGERE BIO
Phoebe Legere is a Juilliard-trained composer of Native American, Acadian and Mayflower descent who plays seven instruments. She has a degree in art from Vassar College, an MFA from New York University and teaches Feminist Art at NYU’s Gallatin School. She is leading the way in the Art/Music/Math/Science/Painting/Animation/Metaphysical worlds with NFTs, and says, "NFTs are very short art movies that you own and trade."
Ms. Legere was a student of John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet and Morton Subotnick. She has collaborated with some of the most creative minds of our time: Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, David Bowie, and many more. She opened for her friend David Bowie on his National Sound and Vision Tour.
She has written a wide variety of hit songs including: “I Will Wait” for Kelly Chan (Certified Platinum, Sony) “Amazing Love” (Random Records, and “Marilyn Monroe” (Island)
Phoebe has had numerous academic appointments including the School of Visual Arts where she invented a musical instrument, the Sneakers of Samothrace, a wearable computer for disabled children. She won the Buddy Baker Film Scoring Fellowship, the Acker Award and is a NYSCA and YADDO fellow.
She co-wrote a work called “The Waterclown” about water issues and water rights which she sang with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Music).
She received a NYSCA grant to write “The Queen of New England, an experimental multimedia opera about the Massachusetts Native American Holocaust.” In 2004, Legere revived her 1992 political play with music: “Hello Mme. President” about the first female President of Color.
Her 2017 album Heart of Love went to #18 on the National Roots Music Radio chart.
Ms. Legere has recorded for Mercury Records in England and Epic, Island, Rizzoli, Funtone, Bernard Stollman’s legendary ESP Disk and Einstein records in the United States. She has been featured on CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS and HBO and prime-time television around the world.
"Phoebe Legere is an American original, she's fun, she's funny, she's smart, but the main thing about her is SHE’S GOOD" - Studs Terkel, National Public Radio.
“Legere plays the piano with enormous authority in a style that encompasses Chopin, blues, ragtime, bebop and beyond, and she brings to her vocal delivery a four octave range, and an extraordinary palette of tonal color and meticulous phrasing.” – The New York Times
"Phoebe Legere is a Transdisciplinary Artist. Her Multi-Format Artworks issue from a powerful and intimate internal voice, reaching out to connect to Being in all its multiplicitous forms.” - The Brooklyn Rail
