Lively Evening of French Songs, Stories, and Fiddle Music
KEENE, N.H. 11/8/02 Keene State Colleges Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond will come alive with the songs, stories, and fiddle music of the French in America when Chanterelle visits Keene for a Wednesday, Nov. 20, concert at 7 p.m. Chanterelle is noted for concerts that bring the audience to the heart of the New Englands warm, lively French culture.
The concert is supported by a corporate sponsorship from Markem Corporation. Additional funding was made possible by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts with support from the six New England arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets are available at the Redfern Arts Center box office, 603-358-2168 or on the web at www.keene.edu/racbp/. Prices are $14 for the general public, $12 for seniors and KSC faculty and staff, $7 for youth 17 and younger, and $5 for KSC students with ID.
Distinctive voices, virtuoso French fiddling, and trademark trio harmonies are hallmarks of Chanterelle performances. By taking the listener on a journey from Québec to Cajun Country they make the audience part of the party. Laughter and music ring together as hands and feet keep time with the music. Chanterelle tells us that its time to have a good time or, as the French say, Cest le temps de samuser, amusons nous ensemble!
A small sample of the songs that Chanterelle will perform are Baby, Please Dont Go, Dondaine la ridaine, Mean Molly Blues, Un Canadien errant, Les non non blues, Va mon ami, va, and Hommage à Louis Beaudoin.
Chanterelle is made of Josée Vachon, Donna Hébert, and Liza Constable. When schedules permit, Cajun accordionist and bassist Alan Bradbury joins them. Vachon is well known to Franco-American audiences. Her 12-year stint as host of the French-language TV show Bonjour made her a household word for Francos in the Northeast. Her concerts are a warm mix of traditional ballads, chansons à répondre, and humorous originals songs. Vachons two CDs are Dévotion, a collection of French-language hymns and seasonal songs, and Déracinée, or uprooted, which has as its theme the French-Canadian immigration to the U.S.
Hébert is a veteran of thousands of contra dances and holds numerous recording industry awards for her fiddling. She is one of the founders of the contra dance renaissance and a national leader in the teaching of the fiddle. Hébert and Vachon collaborated on a Smithsonian/Folkways anthology of Franco music, which was chosen by National Public Radio as one of its Top Ten Folk CDs in 1999.
Constables voice has caught the attention of people from festival audiences to NPRs All Things Considered host Noah Adams, who spent most of his January 1, 2001 on-air interview with her marveling over its qualities. Her Cajun two- steps, waltzes, and bluesy laments turn Chanterelles music south to Louisiana. Constable and Hébert are also half of a concert and contra dance band, Groovemama, with New York fiddler Jane Rothfield and North Carolina dance caller Beth Molaro.
