{"id":10470,"date":"2022-09-13T19:15:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T19:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsnb.ca\/web\/?p=10470"},"modified":"2022-09-13T19:15:54","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T19:15:54","slug":"traveling-the-world-and-the-regions-to-find-roots-in-traditional-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsnb.ca\/web\/2022\/09\/traveling-the-world-and-the-regions-to-find-roots-in-traditional-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveling the world and the regions to find roots in traditional music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Robin LeBlanc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FEATURED ARTIST SERIES – ROBIN LEBLANC AND LA FAMILLE LEBLANC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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My name is Robin LeBlanc and I have been a musician since the age when my mother left me at the sisters’ convent in Bathurst to study piano at Universit\u00e9 de Moncton. In other words, I did 7 years of classical piano training between the ages of 7 and 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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La famille LeBlanc, from left to right: Rebecca Huot,, Rosalie, M\u00e9lodie, Charlotte and Robin Leblanc.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I started playing drums at the age of 14 and we recorded an album under the name “Third Karma” when I was 18. After a year of study in France at University of Poitiers, I started to play the violin once I returned home. I traveled making music in more than fifteen countries from Hungary to Ireland, Morocco, Turkey, and Mexico, to name a few musical traditions that will influence what I do today with my children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2005, I spent a few months in Cape Breton learning Scottish fiddling. After traveling between Newfoundland and Gaspe via the Magdalen Islands, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick to record the oldest fiddlers found in villages, I had the idea to record a first album of old pieces entitled “Sur l’an premier”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choice of songs for this first album was made by consulting several tradition bearers and traditional music enthusiasts in order to know what had already been recorded or was known in the Irish, Scottish, Quebec and Cape Breton repertoires. I chose only unknown pieces of these repertoires, thinking that these pieces were either very old, compositions, pieces played for forgotten or old-fashioned dances, regional and family pieces that have not been recorded or, pieces judged altogether “without interest”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was in 2016 that I brought my family with me to France to participate in the World Traditions Festival in Gannat, Auvergne. My three daughters had learned several Acadian songs as well as the jig for this occasion. For us, it marked the starting point of La famille LeBlanc<\/em>. In 2017, our three daughters started playing an instrument: the violin for Charlotte, the English concertina for Rosalie and the Irish flute for M\u00e9lodie. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In 2018, we participated in a festival in South Korea and in 2019, we did a small tour in France. Then, in 2020 we produced our first album under La famille LeBlanc<\/em>. This album entitled Trois jolies demoiselles<\/em> [Three pretty ladies] was recently nominated for the Trad\/Folk Album of the Year<\/em> category at the East Coast Music Awards 2022 (ECMAS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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