The Maine Arts Commission Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Awardees- Fiscal Year 2002
Ben Guillemette, Sanford
Franco-American fiddler Ben Guillemette, of Sanford, has entertained audiences all over the world, including the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, and the National Folk Festival. During his enlistment in the service, Ben entertained troops for the Red Cross. A past winner of the National Traditional Fiddling Championship, Ben began playing at the age of twelve, and continues after sixty years. Ben earned his living as a cabinetmaker, and now makes fiddles in addition to playing them. His apprentice, Veronica Delcourt, of Gorham is in her second years of apprenticeship.
Benoit Bourque
Quebecois step dancer and musician Benoit Bourque toured the continent in the early 1980’s, with the ensemble Eritage. He has performed widely on radio and television, and has earned a reputation not only as an inspired dancer, but as a choreographer and teacher, frequently presenting workshops for children and youth. Bourque has performed as a member for the trio Matapat from 1998 to 2002, during which time the band was nominated for Canada’s top music award, the Juno, for both of their CD’s. He currently performs with the quartet Le Vent du Nord. His apprentice is Cindy Larock, of Lewiston, Larock has devoted much of her time in turn to teaching stepdancing to another generation of Maine children.
Bertha Voisine, St. John Valley
Bertha Voisine has lived all her life in the St. John Valley, in New Canada Plantation, and Ft. Kent. Her father was a farmer whose principal crop was potatoes. French is Mrs. Voisine’s first language, and as a young girl she learned knitting, sewing, crocheting, and rug braiding from her mother. Mrs. Voisine learned the art of rug-braiding from her mother, in a time when the making of the rugs was an art born of the necessity to make maximum use of available materials. As the rugs became more prized, they have become colorful works of art sought by buyers in Maine and throughout the country. Her uncanny sense of color creates harmonized patterns in the rugs. Once the last remaining practitioner of the art in the St. John Valley, she has taught a group of apprentices with the mantra, “Do it right, or not at all.”
Pirun Sen
Pirun Sen, of Portland, came to the United States from Cambodia more than twenty years ago and immediately began seeking out other musicians in Portland and nearby areas in order to keep alive the music he knew as a young man in Cambodia. For Pirun, the drumbeat becomes the sound of the human heart, and the music itself, a reflective experience that focuses all his attention. He currently leads the Samaki Ensemble, an ensemble of Cambodian musicians who play throughout Maine and New England. His apprentice, Anthony Chhem, of Portland is in his second year of apprenticeship, and hopes to become a musician in his own right, performing with the Samaki, and other ensembles.
