{"id":21698,"date":"2014-10-17T10:47:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T14:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=21698"},"modified":"2015-12-22T09:36:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T14:36:19","slug":"soprano-suzie-leblanc-launches-cd-inspired-by-acadian-christmas-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/10\/17\/soprano-suzie-leblanc-launches-cd-inspired-by-acadian-christmas-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"CD REVIEW | Soprano Suzie LeBlanc launches CD inspired by Acadian Christmas songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You\u2019ll want to dance when you hear these tunes!\u00a0Suzie LeBlanc<\/a>\u00a0says of her new CD of Christmas music titled,\u00a0La Veill\u00e9e de No\u00ebl<\/em>\u00a0(Christmas Eve) out this past Tuesday, October 14.<\/p>\n

Fiddle or voice, music is an inseparable part of the Acadian cultural tradition. In the\u00a0Maritimes, old French songs ring out like heirlooms moving across generations as seamlessly as the Nova Scotia fog belt.<\/p>\n

For soprano\u00a0Suzie LeBlanc, Acadian\u00a0musical traditions have had a major impact on the direction of her career. She grew up in Edmundston, New Brunswick, and began specializing in 17th and 18th century repertoire. With a yearning for discovery, especially French m\u00e9lodies, lieder and folk music, she build her career on musical exploration. She has since appeared on nearly fifty Baroque and Classical music recordings, and also done two Acadian folk music CD’s,\u00a0Tout passe<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0La Mer Jolie.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This year, LeBlanc returns with another –\u00a0La Veill\u00e9e de No\u00ebl.<\/em><\/p>\n

The project\u00a0started after\u00a0her cousin, Pius LeBlanc, presented her with an old book of songs he found in the former Coll\u00e8ge St-Joseph in Memramcook, New Brunswick. The book was called,\u00a0Rondes et chansons populaires illustr\u00e9es<\/em>, and contained over one-hundred pages\u00a0of\u00a0rarely heard musical treasures composed for piano and voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was moved and astonished by the beauty of these forgotten songs, and grateful that they had chanced to come my way. It seemed like a great occasion to make an album of genuine Christmas songs that hardly anyone has heard for many decades,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The pieces were arranged in various ways, from Eastern European tinged percussion, to jubilant jazz numbers, which LeBlanc says is the closest she has ever come to the way Ella Fitzgerald used to celebrate Christmas.<\/p>\n

For those looking for a Burl Ives type\u00a0Christmas music experience \u2013 this is not it.\u00a0The disc, (released on the ATMA label) shifts from the jazz-like arrangements of\u00a0No\u00ebl Dijonnais,\u00a0<\/em>to soft folk guitar and vocal tracks like\u00a0No\u00ebl de Paris.\u00a0<\/em>There\u00a0is\u00a0an\u00a0oddly familiar, and timeworn feeling to works like\u00a0Joseph cherchant un logis<\/em>, and\u00a0Les Trois Mages,<\/em>\u00a0which reflect upon the dim winter light, and the coming of the New Year.<\/p>\n

The arrangements can be \u201cout there” at times, but they grow on you. The accompanying musicians are in fine form, and LeBlanc’s voice is warm and thoughtful.<\/p>\n

All told, this Acadian Christmas Music CD is welcome contrast to the nauseating gleefulness\u00a0found in much of the contemporary Christmas music these days, and will certainly have a place in my personal Christmas music collection.<\/p>\n

Like many others in the past few years (with varying degrees of success), LeBlanc has turned to crowd funding in hopes of recouping the costs of the CD. At the time of writing this, the campaign has raised nearly $2,300 of its $10,000 goal, with 37 days left.<\/p>\n

If readers would like\u00a0contribute to Suzie LeBlanc’s crowdfunding Indiegogo campaign, visit the official website\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The CD,\u00a0is now\u00a0available on both\u00a0iTunes<\/a>, and\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Vincent<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ll want to dance when you hear these tunes! Suzie LeBlanc says of her new CD of Christmas music titled, La Veill\u00e9e de No\u00ebl (Christmas Eve) out this past Tuesday, October 14.<\/p>\n

Fiddle or voice, music is an inseparable part of the Acadian cultural tradition. In the Maritimes, old French songs ring out like heirlooms moving across generations as seamlessly as the Nova Scotia fog belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117,4967,52,70],"tags":[5041,3193],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-11-02-at-10.06.45-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-5DY","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21698"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22501,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21698\/revisions\/22501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21698"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}