Phoebe Legere Brings “Eco-Magic” to Phoenicia

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.

Image Credit: PhoebeLegere.com