Associate Performance Instructor (Music) in the School for Study in Art and Culture, Denis Lanctôt has been awarded the prestigious Canadian GrandMasters Fiddling Lifetime Achievement Award for 2014.
At only 50 years old, Lanctôt has received this distinction at a very young age – a testament to his legendary prominence in the world of fiddling. Though winning awards is somewhat of a customary thing for Lanctôt – he has taken home more than one hundred fiddling awards – this win was special:
“I was honoured to receive The Canadian Grand Masters Lifetime Achievement Award. I have been playing the fiddle since I was 7 years old, and to receive such an honour from the Canadian fiddle community has truly been a wonderful and moving experience.”
Lanctôt is known throughout North America for the lyrical “voice” that he extracts from his violin and for the extraordinary signature of his bowing technique. He has developed his own self-taught, unique fiddling style under the influence of three of the twentieth century’s most legendary fiddlers: Sean McGuire (Ireland), James Scott Skinner (Scotland) and the great Jean Carignan (Québec), with whom he played on several occasions.
Described as a “fiddler’s fiddler,” Lanctôt was born in Québec and now resides in Ottawa. He is equally at home as a fiddler or accompanist, and has had the honour of performing as an ambassador of French Canadian fiddling at two World’s Fairs.
Celtic Instrument Studies at Carleton
To learn more about Denis Lanctôt and Fiddle Studies at Carleton University, please click here.
Carleton University has long been among Canada’s leading centres for scholarship on Canadian cultural Heritage. The option to pursue Celtic instrument studies within the context of the BMus degree opens a new area of performance to both Canadian and International music students, and contributes to Carleton’s recognition of the cultural and historical significance of Canada’s fiddling, piping, harp and Celtic song traditions.
Watch the 2014 Canadian GrandMasters Fiddling Lifetime Achievement Award winner perform: