In an official music video from November 2019, a group of students from Halifax-area schools brilliantly performed a modernized version of the song Briser les murs (in French) by Ronald Bourgeois and Lennie Gallant. This performance was the brilliant culmination of the La Relève project, initiated and coordinated by Luc d’Eon, a music teacher from Dartmouth, to encourage young people to sing in French and thus take over. What a tremendous transition for this passionate musician, who was appointed Executive Director of the Fédération culturelle acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse (FéCANE) at the end of September 2019. Let’s take a brief look back at Luc’s career…

Priority to training

Originally from West Pubnico, Luc d’Eon has been immersed in music since childhood. He learned to play the guitar at the age of eight with his father, the famous artist Wendell d’Eon, and later performed on a few music stages. With a double bachelor’s degree in music and music education, Luc taught music at Bois-Joli School in Dartmouth, while organizing stimulating after-school musical activities for students. Today, Luc slipped serenely into his costume as Executive Director of FéCANE (in French), proud that the organization’s programs attract participants of all ages in a wide range of artistic disciplines. He is particularly pleased with the success of two of them, Stella and Génie Arts, which perfectly illustrate one of his priorities: to improve the training of artists of all levels in Nova Scotia…

In its Stella program, FéCANE supports each year artists from all disciplines who carry out a project in French, now focusing on their training and artistic and professional support. An example? The new group Hirondelles from Chéticamp benefited from the expertise of Robert Deveaux, to discover traditional songs, and that of the group Vishtèn, to develop its career and enrich its musical skills. With its program Génie Arts, FéCANE allows French-speaking schools to collaborate in the classroom, each school year, with artists from all disciplines. An illustration? In 2023-2024, painter Sylvie Boisvert worked with students from École du Grand-Portage in Sackville on a watercolour painting of George Island (Halifax), in an enthusiastic atmosphere. Thus, by promoting the integration of the artistic process into teaching methods, FéCANE encourages students to develop their intellectual and artistic faculties.

And what will become of the La Relève project, dear to Luc d’Eon? Its third edition took shape in 2023 with an album of songs performed in French by some thirty students from schools across the province. This time, it was the students themselves who composed the songs, helped by a team of trainers, with the support of Acadian parents in the province. Luc can only be delighted with such a result, so emblematic of his career as a teacher.

Finally, if there are two projects he is most proud of, they are the two concerts on August 15 for which he was the producer, in 2022 (Havre au Tchai) and in 2024 (Congrès mondial acadien). Luc is still amazed to have been able to produce two shows of such magnitude in three years. It’s probably the kind of surprise he likes the most in his cultural milieu.

Header photo: Luc d’Eon (courtesy of Luc d’Eon).

Jean-Marc Agator
Paris, France