Acadian Fiddling
Will Heat up Chandler

Audiences at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall have witnessed some fine fiddling and step dancing from Canadian Maritime artists such as Natalie MacMaster, and bands like Barachois and Beolach. Chandler will present the Acadian band Grand Dérangement Friday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m.

From the shores of Nova Scotia, the six musicians and step dancers comprising Grand Dérangement all hail from the St. Mary’s Bay region.

"Named after the French phrase for the Acadian expulsion in 1755, Grand Dérangement also refers to the absolute frenzy this band can drive an audience to with its energetic and infectious music," says Chandler’s Janet Watton. "The music is exciting, the show is a visual feast, and the poetic songs defy the audience to sit still. The band is loaded with talent."

Fiddler Daniel Leblanc, bass player/step dancer Jean-Pascal Comeau, drummer/vocalist Briand Melanson and keyboardist Armand Dionne are by joined step dancers Christiane Thériault and Natalie Robichaud.

"Added to this impressive talent is a palpable sense of what lies at the core of Acadian music," Watton adds. "The band plays with conviction and a deep understanding of this rich culture, and the Halifax Mail Star has called them ‘the hottest Acadian band on the planet,’"

This award-winning group is eclectic in it musical approach. Out of the heart of the Acadian style pours the entire contemporary repertoire of rock, jazz, traditional, folk, Cajun, Irish, and even a little bit of urban groove. No matter how many musical influences are woven into their performance, the band never loses the pulsing 16-note rhythm they display like a passport.

Le Grand Dérangement ("The Great Disturbance") is the name given to the Acadians’ 1755 mass expulsion from their homeland by the British military. An illegal action undertaken during peacetime without approval of the British government in London, it expulsion was devised by Major Charles Lawrence, a professional British soldier who, in 1754, took command of the colony as its lieutenant governor.

Lawrence wanted the Acadians’ fertile farmlands for loyal Anglo-Protestant settlers, so he summoned Acadian males to fortified posts under false pretenses and arrested them while soldiers burned homes and boats and rounded up women and children. They were scattered across thousands of miles in a deliberate attempt to wipe out the Acadian identity. Acadian communities struggled to find a foothold in the American colonies, and were most successful in Louisana.

Grand Dérangement holds a special place in the world of French-language music, since the group builds a bridge between the old and the new.

Reserved seat tickets are available through the Chandler box office at 728-6464 between 3-6 p.m. or at tickets@chandler-arts.org.

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