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André Marchand

GUITAR

A leading figure in the trad scene in Quebec, André’s career is marked by artistic projects that have marked the history of traditional music for the past 40 years. Guitarist, singer and composer, he began as co-founder of La Bottine Souriante. From 1976 to 1990, he toured Quebec, Acadia, Canada, the United States as well as several European countries and participated in the recording of the first six discs of La Bottine.

From 1990 to 2009, he became a sound engineer and director. He contributed to the birth of nearly 200 projects, thus giving voice to several emerging artists and other well-known musicians, actively contributing to the emergence of the community. During this period, he collaborated with the Marchand-Miron-Ornstein trio, whom recorded Le Bruit Court dans la Ville in 1996, which won praise from the community. He also teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Gray Larsen with whom he traveled troughout the United States. They recorded The Orange Tree in 1993 and Les Marionnettes in 2004.

In 1993, Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer was born, an a capella vocal quintet. The group produced six albums, three of which won Félix awards in Quebec. They tour and record La Sacrée Rencontre with the great national poet Gilles Vigneault.

For more than 5 years now, André has been evolving with Sophie Lavoie and Fiachra O’Regan, with whom he formed the trio “Grosse Isle” whose first album was released in March 2021.

Singer with a deep and warm voice, André is an endearing character with an overflowing humor. His unique style of accompaniment on the guitar, all in nuances and finesse, influences several generations of guitarists now evolving on the traditional quebecois scene.