Tim Bruno Interviews Phoebe Legere on NPR's Radio Catskill About Her Kindness Is The New Green Initiative & Just Released Song "2 PIANOS"

 

When Phoebe Legere describes her art, 

she doesn’t talk only about notes, 

instruments, or performance. 

She talks about floating pianos, recycled 

costumes dredged from 

Venetian canals, and children’s 

sneakers that make music with every step.

The visionary singer, composer, 

and multi-instrumentalist — who’s 

been compared to everyone from Beethoven 

to Edith Piaf — 

has always blurred the lines between music, 

theater, and activism. 

On August 31, she brings it all together with the 

premiere of her new film The Gender Symphony 

at the 

Phoenicia Playhouse.

“I was the director of the film. I’m in the film. 

I designed all of the costumes from junk that I

 found floating in the canals of Venice,” 

Legere said. 

“I also did the animation for the film. 

It’s called The Gender Symphony and it is about 

a man and a woman suddenly magically 

switching places.”

The project reflects her lifelong fascination 

with the differences — and striking similarities — 

between men and women. “It is the basis 

of almost all of art and music. 

And of course, it is the engine for love, 

the greatest of human activities,” she said.

Legere describes her style as eco-magic — 

art that reuses and reinvents, turning the 

discarded into something visionary. 

That philosophy flows through the film’s

 theme song, “2 Pianos,”released as a single 

last week. Inspired by the sinking 

of the Titanic, where two grand pianos 

were seen floating among icebergs and 

wreckage, Legere transformed the image into a 

metaphor for art’s survival in the face of tragedy.

“Art persists in the greatest tragedy,

in the greatest confusion. 

Art does not die,” she said.

Her work is never just about performance. 

As executive director of the 

Foundation for New American Art, Legere 

helps bring free music and art education 

to children in low-income communities 

across New York City and Poughkeepsie. 

That work even inspired one of her inventions: 

the “Sneakers of Samothrace,” musical shoes 

that create rhythm through tiny movements 

of the foot. Originally designed to 

encourage children with 

disabilities to walk again, the sneakers 

now feature in her compositions — 

including “2 Pianos.”

The film is already making waves abroad, 

winning 19 international festival prizes. 

Meanwhile, the single is gaining 

traction on Spotify playlists in France, 

Haiti, Belgium, and Quebec. 

But Legere is quick to connect her 

success to a bigger purpose.

“We are living in an extraordinary 

political moment,” she said.

“But I don’t believe in despair.

What I believe in is creativity,

and I believe that we can

        sing our way 

        forward together.”

Her message is simple, but radical: 

“Creativity and kindness 

are the most radical form of power.”

The Gender Symphony premieres 

Sunday, August 31, at the Phoenicia Playhouse.

TO LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE 

INTERVIEW, PLEASE VISIT:

https://wjffradio.org/phoebe-legere-brings-eco-magic-to-phoenicia/

Image Credit: PhoebeLegere.com