Michèle Choinière

The Lowell Sun

Updated: 07/22/2010 11:10:42 AM EDT

Franco-American Song

Michèle Choinière, who sings traditional French-Canadian songs she learned growing up in Burlington, Vt., is part of a younger generation of Franco-Americans carrying on, and expanding, the musical tradition brought from Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Raised in a Francophone family, she took up piano at an early age and began singing and playing traditional French-Canadian music with her father, an accomplished harmonica player. From her family and neighbors, she learned old French ballads and the distinctive chansons à répondres at soirées and other community gatherings.

She has been featured on Vermont Public Radio, has released a solo album, Coeur Fragile and is featured on the Smithsonian-Folkways CD Mademoiselle, Voulez-Vous Danser: Franco-American Music from the New England Borderlands, released in 1999.

She will be appearing at the festival with her father, Fabion, on harmonica, Will Patton (mandolin/bass), David Gusakov (fiddle), and Dono Schabner, (guitar).

Schedule: Saturday, Market Street Stage, 3:30 p.m., St. Anne's, 2:15 p.m.; Sunday, Boarding House Park, 2 p.m., St. Anne's, 12:15 p.m.