Louis Beaudoin

Louis Beaudoin - photographer

Person

Genres: Canadian, traditional, french-canadian, violinist, Canadian traditional

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About Louis Beaudoin

Louis Beaudoin (d. 1980) was considered to be one of the finest fiddle players in the French-Canadian tradition. Beaudoin was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His father played fiddle at parties and weddings for the French-Canadian community in Lowell. At the age of fifteen Louis took up the fiddle too, and was taught in the traditional amnner by his parents. He also learned the correct way to tap his feet, an extremely important part of the French-Canadian fiddle tradition, in which it is common for fiddlers to play sitting down, so that the feet are free to create complicated clogging rhythms. The family moved to Vermont in 1937, and it was soon after this that young Beaudoin first encountered Joe Danis, an older Canadian fiddler who became Beaudoin's tutor. In the meantime he became a fairly normal part of the Burlington, Vermont, community. During the second World War, Beaudoin served in Africa and Europe as a member of General Patton's tank division. In the 1950s he began serving on the Burlington police department, staying there for eleven years before opening his own car-radiator workshop in 1964. While Beaudoin certainly had the ability to perform professionally, and did, he looked at himself as more of an individual who was dedicated to sharing his beloved musical traditions with others. He was very active in the state's Council of Arts, recognising that such an insitution's activities could greatly benefit younger players. He served as chairman of the board of trustees of the Northeast Fiddlers' Association until his death in early 1980. He was selected to play at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for a square dance on the eve of President Jimmy Carter's inauguration. He passed on his love of his music to his own children just as his own family had done with him; three of his daughters play the piano and clog dance.

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