Peggy Seeger

Peggy Seeger

 

April 10, 2008
11:00 a.m.
The Performance Hall
Fife Honor Lecture

 

Peggy Seeger is a singer of traditional Anglo-American songs and activist songmaker. She has recorded over twenty solo albums and has participated in over a hundred recordings with other artists. She has written music for film, television, and radio; she has also authored or co-authored several books of folksongs. She is probably best known for her feminist song, “Gonna Be an Engineer,” and for “The Ballad of Springhill.” Her life partner was the English songwriter Ewan MacColl who wrote “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” for her. Seeger and MacColl were at the forefront of the British folksong revival for 30 years. Their innovative work incorporated folk techniques in songwriting and strengthened the ties between traditional and political music. Seeger comes from one of America’s foremost musical families. Her mother was notable American modernist composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Charles Seeger, her father, was a pioneering musicologist. Her siblings, Pete Seeger and Mike Seeger, are famous figures on the American folk music scene. She now lives in Boston, regularly tours worldwide, and puts out a new CD every 18 months.