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toby lurie
Biography

Statement

"synesthesia is my vision of
the interlacing of
various major art disciplines:
music, language, and painting.
Each has always influenced
and existed within the other.
"Synesthesia" -
the balance sometimes favors
one over the other,
but painting, for me, has become
the ultimate synthesis, the mortar
which binds all forms together."
 

Biography

Toby Lurie was born on May 12, 1925, in Seattle, Washington. His journey into the arts began at age twelve when he began studying voice with the intention of becoming an opera singer.
After a stint in the US Navy during WWII, Toby studied at the Los Angeles School of Opera, and went on to study Composition from 1947 through 1949, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, UC Berkeley, and at the University of Washington. He then studied composition with the renowned Darius Milhaud, at Mills College in Oakland, and played bass in local symphony orchestras.
 
Lurie's love for the creative life was often side-tracked by the lure to participate in his family's real estate and hotel businesses, and by the pleasures and practicalities of family life. However, on his fortieth birthday, Toby wrote a poem while at work and shared it with his wife and three young children that evening. That very day, encouraged by his family to leave the shackles of the business world behind, Lurie threw his real estate license into the fire and began a new, more committed love affair with language, art, and music.
As Toby developed his marriage of poetry and music into his version of "Word Music," Toby began to share his work by conducting workshops in over 1500 schools across the U. S., Great Britain, and Europe.
 
In 1983, at the age of sixty, Toby sketched his first art work by copying a page from his first Word Music Symphony and was on his way to the next phase of his career. Adding painting to the mix of poetry and music - expressing his Word Music in vibrant colors, on canvas and paper - he gave birth to his concept of "Synesthesia." Within six months, he had his first show of paintings at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.
 
At seventy-five, Toby Lurie is a working artist who has, as of this writing: produced hundreds of paintings shown across the U.S., in Europe, and Japan; has written eleven Word Music symphonies; has published eighteen poetry and Word music books; and recorded numerous video and CD collections of spoken word and song. Toby also enjoys writing in coffee houses, traveling the world, swimming, time spent with children and grand-children, and canoeing with his fiance, Carolyn.
 

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Gallery Showings and Performances
One-Person Shows
 
1997
Soho Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Primavera, Santa Barbara, CA
Hamatsu, Japan
Gallery Creart, Osaka, Japan
Calpoly University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Altus Gallery, Petaluma, CA
 
1996
Gallery On The Rim, San Francisco, CA
Gallery 3x, Bellview, WA
 
1995
Alternatives Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA
Calpoly University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Gallery 3x, Bellview, WA
 
1994
Gallery 524, San Francisco, CA
Gallery Sho, Tokyo, Japan
 
1993
Karuizawa, Japan
Gallery Creart, Osaka, Japan
Upstairs Gallery, Truckee, CA
Green Dragon Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
State Of The Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Northwestern University, Evanston, ILL
 
1992
Gallery Sho, Tokyo, Japan
Gallery Creart, Osaka, Japan
State Of The Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Tah Gallery, South Pasadena, CA
 
1991
Kunstnernes Hus, Aarhus, Denmark
Atelier 53, Copenhagen, Denmark
Branner Spangenberg, Palo Alto, CA
 
1990
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Davis Art Center, Davis, CA
 
1988 -89
Cal. School Of Integral Studies
Golden Gate Valley Library, San Francisco, CA
Potrero Library, San Francisco, CA
Park Gallery, San Francisco, CA
 
1986
University Of San Francisco
Santa Barbara Art Museum
Calpoly University, San Luis Obispo, CA
University Of San Francisco
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Minx Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Greenwood Galleries, Seattle, WA
I.D.E.A. Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Santa Barbara Art Museum
 
1985
Calpoly University, Pomona, CA
Calpoly University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Eulipia Gallery, San Jose, CA
Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
Cal State University, Northridge, CA
 
1984
Co-Lab Gallery, San Francisco, CA
College Of Pacific, Stockton, CA
Twin Palms Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Chico State University, Chico, CA
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
 
1983
University Of Michigan, Minneapolis, MN
University of Michigan, St. Paul, MN
 
Other Selected Showings and Performances
Two-Person Shows
 
Branner Spangenberg, Palo Alto, CA
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Twin Palms Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Slide Performances
Calpoly University, San Luis Obispo, CA
University Of San Francisco
University Of San Francisco
Santa Barbara Art Museum
Santa Barbara Art Museum
Cal State University, Northridge, CA
Permanent Collections
Northwestern University, Evanston, ILL
Art City, Hamamatsu, Japan
Pickwick Hotel, San Francisco, CA
Ramada Inn, San Francisco, CA
Ramada Inn, Portland, OR
 
Other Selected Works
Published Poetry and Word Music Books
New Forms New Spaces
Measured Space
Handbook on Vocal Poetry
Mirror-Images
Conversations with the Past
Conversations and Constructions
Serial Poems
A Leaf of Voices
Word Music
The Beach at Cleone
The Last Rondo in Paris
Haight Street Blues
Duets
Trios
Quartets
Quintets
Sextets
 
Selected Compositions
Symphony for the Holocaust - 1996
11 Symphonies for Spoken Voice Orchestra 1967-1995
 
Recent Audio Recordings
Word Music - spoken word CD, selected spoken works by Toby Lurie - 1998
When I Write My Song - CD of selected ballads, sung by Toby Lurie - 1998
 
Toby Lurie
Journeys Into Language
2022 High Street, #B
Alameda, CA 94501

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