Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.760b, Connecticut Historical S…

Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Year 9 Artist: Colette Fournier French Canadian Fiddling

Date2006 September 29

Mediumreformatted digital file from audio cassette

DimensionsDuration: 6 Minutes, 12 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionAudio cassette tape recording of Colette Fournier performing Franco-American fiddling.

The track list includes:
1. Les Fraises & Les Framboise
2. Mattawa
3. Ben's Tune
4. Growling Old Man, Grumbling Old Woman

The tape was recorded on September 29, 2006, and was submitted as an application tape for Year 9 (2006-2007) of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program; Colette Fournier was an apprentice in French Canadian fiddling to Donna Hebert.

Object number2015.196.760a-c

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP) initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

Biographical Note: Colette Fournier - Born and raised in a family that cherished its French traditions, Colette learned music and songs at home from an early age and her grandfather made and played Franco fiddles, she remembers. She increased her repertoire through a two-year apprenticeship with Ben Guillemette in Maine, and then with Rosaire Lehoux of Connecticut during the first year (1998-1999) of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Project, and later with fiddler Donna Hebert in Year 9 (2006-2007) and Dan Boucher in Year 10. Colette learned some of Rosaire's "tunes with no names and the crooked tunes - with an odd number of beats in the A or B parts" during her Year 1 SNEAP apprenticeship with him. The French Canadian fiddle apprenticeships were instrumental in bringing these musicians together to play all around New England. Colette regularly organizes quadrille dances in the French communities in Connecticut and Rhode Island and performs with the group La Sauterie with her sister and a niece. She continues to teach fiddle playing to others in various community settings.

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this artist and this project.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

Subject Terms