Fiddler Donna Hébert has been awarded a 2008 Artists’ Fellowship in the Folk Arts by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The state arts award “to recognize exceptional work and to support the further development of talent” honors her work in Franco-American music. “This has been a labor of love, so having that work recognized is very sweet,” Donna said when she heard about the honor from Maggie Holtzberg, Dir. of Folk Arts Programming for the Council. There will be a concert Oct. 4 at the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, MA.

A third-generation Franco-American, Donna co-founded two Franco music groups. Chanterelle, formed in 1993 with Josée Vachon, Liza Constable and Alan Bradbury, contributed original songs to the Smithsonian/ Folkways anthology, “Mademoiselle, voulez-vous danser.” A favorite of Franco audiences in the northeast, Chanterelle are regulars at the Blackstone River Theatre in RI and are working on a new CD. See them July 12 at the Vergennes (VT) Opera House for Franco Heritage Fest.

The Beaudoin Legacy took shape in 2005 when Donna and fiddler George Wilson contacted members of the family, urging them to allow the Vermont Folklife Center to preserve their old family recordings. Archived digitally, these now comprise the Beaudoin Collection, housed at the Center. Within months, a new band was formed with Beaudoin family members, friends and the next generation of French fiddlers, singers and dancers. Named in 2007 to the NEA’s American Masterpiece Roster by the Vermont Arts Council, the Beaudoin Legacy can be seen Aug 2-3 at VT’s Champlain Valley Folk Festival and Aug 22-23 at the American Folk Festival in Bangor ME.

Donna has fiddling in her genes. Her mother, Mary M. (Blair) Hinds, was born in Burlington VT, eldest child of French-Canadian immigrant parents. Mary and her sister Theresa sang and played in the 1930s in dance halls and on the radio around New England. Donna’s Commo and Myers cousins helped found and are still involved in the Northeast Fiddlers’ Association in Vermont. Donna learned her French fiddling skills in the early 1970s from greats like Louis Beaudoin and Gerry Robichaud, even producing a recording of Robichaud’s music in 1977 for Fretless/Acazar.

Since then, Donna has played for concerts and dances and taught Louis’ and Gerry’s music to seven apprentices in Franco-American fiddling, including Louis’ grandson, Glenn Bombardier, a fiddler in the Beaudoin Legacy. Donna’s first apprentice, Daniel Boucher, also plays with the group. Donna’s new instructional fiddle book, “The Fiddle Music of Louis Beaudoin” will document Louis’ tunes and style.

In 2008, the Massachusetts Cultural Council also named Donna a Creative Teaching Partner in fiddling. Through the Council’s Creative Schools initiative, Donna works with Massachusetts string educators, training them in fiddling and working together to fit fiddle music, pedagogy and style into the string curriculum. To aid in this work, Donna authored “Fiddling Demystified for String Players,” a 70-page manual with teaching CDS.

A national ASTA clinician and adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna has taught fiddling at Wesleyan and the Hartt School. She is teaching workshops in the coming academic year again at Hartt and, for the first time, at Brown University.

In collaboration with Old Songs Festival and her partners in Groovemama, in 2000, Donna created the Great Groove Bands for young musicians age 6-18. The three-day festival teaching and performance program expanded to the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2006. Donna also directs three summer camp weeks at Old Songs Community Center for children, adults and string teachers.

A contradance fiddler since 1972, Donna has played for many callers, including Dudley Laufman, Ralph Page, Ted Sanella and Tony Parkes. She started the Monday night contradance with Tony and Yankee Ingenuity at the Concord, MA, Scout House in 1977 and has since played for dances around the country with Rude Girls, Chanterelle and most recently, Groovemama.

For more info: www.dhebert.com