May 21, 2022

Percussive Pleasures

with Benoît Bourque

2-4pm EDT

online via Zoom

$10 is suggested but any amount is appreciated.

Donations support these events, leaders, musicians, and the Folk Arts Center.

Download resources for this workshop (updated May 21), including bone preparation instructions and spoons lesson.

About the Program

This workshop will be devoted to the joys of making music through “the striking of one solid object with or against another with some degree of force” (the definition of percussion). The afore-mentioned “solid objects” we will be working with this afternoon are bones, spoons, and our feet!

You do not have a pair of bones handy? No problem! Click this link for a downloadable document on how to prepare bones for playing! Benoît is a consummate performer, and the time will fly by as we enjoy his his music, his stories, his step dancing and his teaching!

About Benoît

A versatile artist overflowing with energy and a contagious joie de vivre, Benoît Bourque has been winning the public over for more than 30 years. Charismatic, exuberant, warm, funny, and limber are just a few words that describe him.

A musician, dancer, singer and caller, he has been a member of and toured with a variety of beloved and respected bands, including: Éritage, Ad vielle que pourra, Hommage à Alfred Montmarquette, Bourque et Bernard, Matapat, La Bottine Souriante, and Le Vent du Nord.

As a specialist of Québec traditional dances, Benoît has presented lectures and workshops in many camps and festivals (including Folk Arts Center’s 1998 Oktoberfest Dance and Music Weekend in Fairlee, Vermont), sharing his skills in step dancing and bones playing (wich is a family tradition: his dad and grandad were both bones players).

Benoît is involved in the "Artists in School" program, a partnership between the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications and the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec. This program gives access for pre-elementary, elementary and high school students to arts and culture.

Since 2007, Benoît has also been involved in Music Therapy programs where he devotes several hours a week helping elderly, physically disabled and mentally challenged people experience the same joy he does learning, playing and enjoying music.