News » Franco-American heritage

Chainon to perform Franco-American music, storytelling

Bates News — Thu, 16 Jul 1998 18:16:34 +0000

Chainon, a fiddle, accordion and mandolin trio, specializing in traditional Franco-American music and storytelling, performs July 30 at 6 p.m. on the Bates quadrangle. The performance is part of the Bates Midsummer Concert Series, and the public is invited to attend free of charge.

Next in the Bates College Midsummer Concert Series will be The Jazz Workshop, a group of talented middle and high school musicians under the direction of Lewiston music teacher Mike McClure, Aug. 6. All concerts are held on the Bates quadrangle at 6 p.m. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

Franco Festivities to be shown at Bates

Bates News — Wed, 06 May 1998 18:44:30 +0000

Franco Festivities, a documentary about Maine’s Franco American culture by Maine filmmaker Francis Gagnon, will be shown in the Bates College Olin Arts Center May 17 at 1 and 3:30 p.m. The 30-minute color film examines Lewiston’s Festival de Joie and Biddeford’s La Kermesse to reveal the strength of Maine’s Franco- American communities and their eagerness to celebrate and share their heritage with others. Gagnon will introduce each showing with his insights and observations about the filmmaking process. Admission is $3 and tickets are available at the door only. For more information call 207-782-0386.

A program of live music and dance will follow each screening, featuring jigs and reels played by Group de Joie and traditional French and Irish dancing by Cathedral School Folk Troupe, a multinational ensemble of fifth- and sixth-graders from Portland. Montreal dance master and musician Benoit Bourque will perform following the 1 p.m. show.

Organized by the Franco Folk Arts Cooperative and sponsored by the Bates College Department of Classical and Romance Languages and Literatures, the film opening is the next event in Lewiston-Auburn’s ongoing Renaissance Series of community cultural events.

Original concerto to headline orchestra performance

Bates News — Tue, 19 Mar 1996 14:16:33 +0000

A new concerto by Bates music professor William Matthews and the monumental Ninth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich will be on the program when the Bates Orchestra performs March 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall.

The performances, to be conducted by Matthews, are open to the public at no charge.

Matthews’ double concerto, which reflects the heritage of New England and Franco-American fiddling, will receive its premiere in the two concerts.

Its three movements include themes based on such well-known fiddle tunes as “Marie’s Wedding” and “Isabeau s’y promene.” Soloists will be violinist Steve Kecskemethy and violist Julia Adams, members of the Portland String Quartet and string instructors at Bates.

The Shostakovich symphony, considered by many as the Russian composer’s masterpiece, was written in 1945 to celebrate the end of World War II.

In the symphony, Shostakovich, “surprised his audience by writing a sarcastic and sometimes funny piece, which uses parodies of march music in its first and last movements,” Matthews said.