Renowned Acadian singer/songwriter Angèle Arsenault finally returns to the stage with a bilingual show and special guests on August 12 at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, 7:30 p.m.
But don’t make a big fuss – she prefers it be intimate, like a good ol’ kitchen party. “It’s going to be like a night home with Angèle,” she says. After all, she began playing traditional Acadian music in the kitchen of her Abram-Village, PEI, home with her thirteen siblings.
Angèle first publicly performed in 1963, and wrote her first original song in 1973. Her first album appeared in 1975. A resident of Quebec, she was a staple host and performer on French radio and television from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. She also released 11 albums, most in French.
She returned to Summerside in 1996 to be with her ill mother. “But she still had her brain!” Angèle says. “And now, I could pick it. I couldn’t growing up, there were too many other kids around,” she laughs.
Her time back on the Island has been filled with reflection and creative recharge. “I was doing a lot of sketching, drawing… just resting my brain. I wasn’t working on any music.” That changed after her mother’s passing in 2006 when, she recounts, “I had a burst of creativity!”
Angèle resumed writing music, delighted to find an English muse. Famous for her French music and lauded for her contribution to the language, she has always wanted to pursue a parallel career in English. English music is as much a part of her roots as traditional Acadian songs, with folk singers Buffy St. Marie and Bob Dylan among her earliest influences.
She is currently working on two albums, one in each language, but the English is closer to completion. “I really, really love these songs,” she says, “because they speak to a wider audience; not because of the language they’re written in but because they transcend spoken word, age and culture – they speak directly to the heart.”
Most of the concert material will be drawn from the new English album, marking a new beginning for Angèle. Her new and old French songs will also be on the line-up, as well as music by original French country musician Marcella Richard, Angèle’s niece, and other special guests.
“It’s going to be an intimate and personal concert, completely bilingual and full of surprises!” Angèle assures.
Tickets for Angèle’s concert are $25 and available now at the Confederation Centre of the Arts Box Office, 1-800-565-0278, or www.confederationcentre.com. The 2007 Confederation Bridge Concert Series is sponsored by Confederation Bridge, Tourism PEI and the City of Charlottetown.
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