Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.764c, Connecticut Historical S…

SNEAP Year 7 Teaching Session: French Canadian Fiddle Repertoire

PerformerPerformed by Rosaire Lehoux Canadian, 1920 - 2013

PerformerPerformed by Daniel Boucher American, born 1980

Date2005 March

Mediumreformatted digital file from audio cassette

DimensionsDuration (side 1): 47 Minutes, 59 Seconds
Duration (side 2): 21 Minutes, 25 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 9 Minutes, 30 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionAudio cassette tape field recording of a teaching session of the Year 7 Southern New England Apprenticeship Program team in Franco-American fiddle repertoire with teaching artist Rosaire LeHoux and apprentices Daniel Boucher and Nancy Lemme in March 2005.

In Year 7 of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, teacher Rosaire Lehoux worked with apprentices Daniel Boucher from Connecticut and Nancy Lemme from Rhode Island. For their public presentations, Rosaire and Daniel played at a French Club soiree at Eastern Connecticut State University, and all three performed at the CCHAP Apprenticeship Program Festival in June 2005 at the Portuguese Club in Newington, Connecticut.

Object number2015.196.764a-d

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: Rosaire LeHoux, born in Quebec in 1920 and raised on a small farm in Giroux, held a large repertoire of Quebecois fiddle tunes and spent his life playing fiddle at countless community events and dances in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. Rosaire was known for his “crooked tunes” and his unique way of holding the bow. Despite his age, he often jumped up to do a step dance at soirees, and he always kept the rhythm with his feet while playing fiddle. Rosaire played with the group "Les Joyeux Copains" along with Michel Grenier and Camille Richard, for many years in the 1990s. Rosaire served as a mentor to several apprentices in the program, including Colette Fournier and Nancy Lemme from Rhode Island and was especially influential to fiddler Daniel Boucher from Connecticut. Rosaire passed away in 2013.

Biographical Note: Daniel Boucher is a fiddle player and composer from Bristol, Connecticut who learned French Canadian songs from his father and other musicians in the local community. Also a singer and composer of traditional-style songs, Daniel revitalized French Canadian folk music in Connecticut in the 2000s by organizing soirées, dance parties, and seasonal celebrations including his annual Maple Sugar Party. Daniel has performed with New England-based French Canadian music groups such as Chanterelle and The Beaudoin Family, and with singer Josée Vachon. His performances include the Québec 400 celebrations in Québec City in 2008; dance parties at Le Foyer in Pawtucket, Rhode Island; the Blackstone River Theater in Cumberland, Rhode Island; French Day at the State Capitol in Hartford; and folk festivals in Lowell, Massachusetts and Bangor, Maine. Daniel’s concerts inspire audiences to participate in dancing, call and response singing, or playing the spoons.

CCHAP first met Daniel in 1998, when he played with his father Jules at the opening of "Sur Bois: Franco-American Woodcarvers of New England," an exhibit presented by CCHAP at the Institute for Community Research gallery. A dynamic performer and cultural activist, Daniel organized regular French-Canadian music jams and cultural events/celebrations around central Connecticut, drawing participants from all over New England. Daniel has been part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program as both master and student over the years. He worked with renowned Quebecois fiddler Rosaire LeHoux in Year 7 (2004-2005), learning Rosaire’s “crooked tunes.” He taught his own traditional fiddle compositions to 15-year old Nate Ouellette in Year 9, and in Year 10 worked with Colette Fournier on French Canadian songs and Jean Galipeau in Year 15 (2012-2013). Dan and Colette performed at a soiree organized by CCHAP for a cultural bus tour, and then again at the State Capitol before a large crowd commemorating Jean de Baptiste Day. Dan and Colette, along with former participants Donna Hebert and Nate Ouellette, have played all over New England with the Beaudoin project, a region-wide music preservation initiative, and at festivals, soirees, and house parties. CCHAP presented Daniel with a group of French-Canadian musicians at the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress “Homegrown: Music of America” series in 2011, and he played with Josée Vachon and Patrick Ross at an outdoor concert at the Connecticut Historical Society in 2015. Substantial CCHAP archive materials exist for Daniel and his events.

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

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