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Monday, March 19, 2012; 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
CSPS / Legion Arts
 Vishtèn is made up of twin sisters Pastelle and Emmanuelle LeBlanc from Prince Edward Island, Canada, along with Pascal Miousse from the nearby Magdelene Islands. They incorporate elements of the new while retaining and staying true to the essential Acadian spirit of their roots. The sound is essentially Celtic but the songs are French, sung by each band member, alone or in four-part harmony. Band members are accomplished multi-instrumentalists and step-dancers incorporating the fiddle, guitar, accordion, penny-whistle, banjo, mandolin, piano, jaw-harp and bodhran into performances.
Pastelle and Emmanuelle grew up in a household where fiddle music was commonplace. Their parents opened their home night after night to local and traveling fiddlers; musical jams into the wee hours were a regular occurrence. Soon the young sisters were becoming accomplished step dancers and learning the fundamentals of music on the piano. All the while they had the opportunity to listen to and experience the fiddlers and accompanists
of their parents’ generation. One of the best of these was Bertrand Deraspe, a renowned fiddler from the Magdalen Islands.
It wasn’t long before the sisters began to jam with other young people in their community and formed a band called Celtitude, later changing the name to Vishtèn. Pastelle’s early
piano training proved useful in making the transition to accordion and Emmanuelle soon discovered a flare for playing penny whistle and bodhràn. Their voices had also matured and the sweetness and smoothness of sibling harmonies was added to the mix.
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