https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-for-september-15-2019-1.5282280/the-fiddle-is-laughing-how-this-teen-and-83-year-old-keep-ti-jean-carignan-s-music-alive-1.5282342

My apologies.

: Happy music and dancing for a belated Happy Birthday Hobie!
: :-) I know you like Jean Luc Ponty, so maybe you'd enjoy a
: story about a young fiddle player, a master fiddler, and
: someone who became a living link between them!

: There's the video in the story, but I found the second video
: of Carignan posted by the young fiddler, Maxim Bergeron,
: and it includes some very joyful Acadian dancing!

: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8JUkVIbIzU

: Big Happy Birthday Hugs, Hobie, And many thank you for many
: things!

: Anna

: 'The fiddle is laughing': How this teen and 83-year-old keep
: Ti-Jean Carignan's music alive

: Gilles Losier didn't expect Carignan's heir apparent to be a
: high school student in Germany

: CBC Radio · Posted: Sep 13, 2019 4:53 PM ET | Last Updated:
: September 13

: Gilles Losier and Maxim Bergeron hold an album of Losier's
: former musical partner and Bergeron's musical idol Ti-Jean
: Carignan. (David Gutnick/CBC)
: Listen16:40
: For decades, Gilles Losier has been on a mission to make sure
: that legendary Québécois fiddler Ti-Jean Carignan and his
: music are never forgotten.

: But he didn't expect Carignan's heir apparent to be a high
: school student in Germany.

: Losier, who was Carignan's piano accompanist for more than 20
: years, first met Maxim Bergeron in 2017.

: A friend told him that Bergeron, who was in Montreal visiting
: his grandmother, was an extraordinary violin player who had
: taught himself how to play some of Carignan's most
: complicated tunes.

: They met for the first time in a stuffy practice room at
: McGill University, and a remarkable musical relationship
: was born.

: Gilles Losier and Maxim Bergeron show off their instruments.
: (David Gutnick/CBC)
: They make an odd pair. Bergeron is now 15 — reserved and wispy
: thin, with long, sunblond hair. Losier, 83, is an exuberant
: character from northern New Brunswick, with thin white hair
: and coke-bottle lenses that double the size of his eyes.

: During that first meeting, the teenager from Berlin and the
: old Acadian played Ti-Jean Carignan tunes till they were
: panting.

: "The more we go, the better it gets. He's playing hard
: music. Music that other fiddlers will spend a lifetime, and
: never, never be able to play. The more we go, I realize
: that it's Ti-Jean Carignan," Losier told The Sunday
: Edition's documentary producer David Gutnick.

: 'The best fiddler that ever lived'

: Losier still remembers the first time he heard Carignan, who
: he describes as "absolutely the best fiddler that ever
: lived." It was at Expo 67 in Montreal.

: "When I heard Carignan — oh, my goodness. I knew there
: were some people that could play like that, but not on that
: level," he said.

: "So afterwards I said to Ti-Jean, 'I'm from down home.'
: 'Oh, great. I love the Acadians', he said. [I said] 'I play
: the piano. Let's try a tune.'"

: The rest is history.

: Carignan died in 1988, and Losier has been trying to get
: fiddlers to play his music ever since.

: 'I got pretty obsessed with Ti-Jean'

: Bergeron was born in Berlin in 2004, to a Russian mother and a
: Québécois father. He began classical violin lessons when he
: was three-and-a-half years old.

: "I got pretty obsessed with Ti-Jean. First I got to know
: some of his recordings, then I learned some of his
: tunes," he said.

: He spent hours trying to emulate his manner of playing. At one
: point, he even wanted to cut his hair like Carignan.

: "After school I'd get out my violin, turn on the
: computer, and I'd use a special program to slow down the
: records of Ti-Jean. Then I'd listen to them carefully for
: all the details, all the ornamentation ... then I'd raise
: the speed gradually until I got to 100 per cent," he
: said.

: "Maxim has learnt the sound of Ti-Jean Carignan,"
: said Losier. "It sounds like the fiddle is
: laughing."

: 'The music won't die'

: After their first meeting in McGill, Losier and Bergeron
: weren't sure they would ever see each other again.

: But they've stayed in touch. Bergeron calls Losier from
: Germany, because it's cheaper that way, and they talk about
: songs, great recordings, and some of the musicians Carignan
: used to play with.

: Gilles Losier plays piano with Maxim Bergeron on fiddle.
: (David Gutnick/CBC)
: "I tell Maxim about ways to play the music and how to
: understand it, and how to not play it so fast, because
: sometimes when he practices — holy smoke, I think the smoke
: is gonna come out of the fiddle," Losier said.

: "I can't imagine a life without Gilles, because first of
: all, he's a good pianist but not only that ... he's a
: transmitter between myself and my idol," said
: Bergeron.

: "I guess you could say I have three parents. My mom and
: my dad, who help me in normal life, and Gilles, who you can
: say is a musical parent, who lives it with me and who tells
: me about it."

: Losier said the chance to collaborate with Bergeron spurs him
: on and gives him something to live for.

: "I'm 83 and I'll keep playing until I can't play anymore
: ... It gives me great joy to be able to play with a guy
: like that. I don't know how long, but it doesn't
: matter," he said.

: "I'm gonna die, but the music won't die, because Maxim
: will be there."