The Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel

Telling Stories with Music: Concert Featuring Bertrand Laurence
2025-11-30 14:00 - 16:00 UTC | Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel, 993 Main Street, Lille, ME, 04746, United States
Join us Sunday, November 30th, for a special musical performance featuring guitarist and singer-songwriter Bertrand Laurence.
Bertrand Laurence is an international performer with a wide Festival, Concert and Club experience, having performed in venues across North America, Europe, and Asia. Laurence’s music entails a unique blending of traditional Blues/Swing/Ragtime/Folk as well as contemporary styles. His melodic stories and anecdotes derive from his observations and adventures in the U.S. as a Frenchman, social worker, mime, children’s theatre director, and musician.
From Rouen, the capital of Normandy in France’s northern region, Laurence recounts his early attraction to the rhythms and strings of acoustic blues music. Drawn by such tempos emanating from the U.S., Laurence departed France to study blues orally from concerts and radio shows, soon leading to his enrollment at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he remained for a semester. While in Boston, Laurence became one of the first artists to perform at the original House of Blues near Harvard Square in Cambridge. Laurence was soon featured on NPR’s “Blues Stage,” whose host at the time – singer-songwriter, actress, and “Queen of R&B,” Ruth Brown – commented, “The man sure has his way with the boogie!”
Laurence traveled throughout the American South, recognizing and celebrating the inseparability of the French language with blues-based American music (e.g., Zydeco, Swing, Jazz, Soul, Rock’ n’ Roll). There, he could be found performing regularly in New Orleans, particularly at the Lafayette International Festival. Laurence has performed at various other festivals, including The Boston Blues Festival, Boston Folk Festival, Montreal Jazz, NYC International Busker’s Fair, and the Jazz au Mercure festival in Toulouse, France.
Laurence has led workshops and lectures on creativity and performance, and adopts a body-centered pedagogy in his music-making, enriched with mindful breath-works, centering meditation, and stress-reduction. He has taught “Guitar & Voice” nation-wide virtually via Zoom, and has designed a new workshop, “Finding your Voice,” coaching introspection (inner voice) and expression (written and vocal) amongst his trainees to connect and release authentic artistic form.
Learn more about Bertrand Laurence and his work by visiting his websites below:
www.creativeground.org/profile/bertrand-laurence
https://bertrandlaurence.bandcamp.com/music
Admission is free and/or by donation.

Your donation helps support the arts within Northern Maine, and contributes to the Musée’s mission of restoring and preserving the former church of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, the artefacts of its permanent collection, and the broader grounds of its former parish.

Danielle & Thomas Segen
2025-11-09 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
We are delighted to be welcoming back the Segens to the Musée on Sunday, November 9th! Danielle (Mezzo Soprano) and Thomas (Tenor) Segen will present an afternoon program of art song, opera, and folk music, performing a rich and diverse collection of pieces and melodic ballads whose compositional origins not only traverse the world over, but also hold regional resonance to Northern Maine.Danielle earned her Bachelor of Music at Western Washington University and her Master of Music at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Seen regularly on the opera stage at university, Danielle’s performances included Hermia in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte, and the titular role in both Tragedy of Carmen and in the west coast premiere of William Bolcom’s Lucrezia to name but a few. Danielle recently spent nearly a decade performing Armenian repertoire alongside the VEM String Quartet, bringing Armenian music to schools and concert venues across North America. In the Spring of 2023 she traveled with the VEM String Quartet to give a series of concerts in Armenia where she also completed a short residency in Dilijan giving lessons, masterclasses, and concerts at local schools. Danielle is sought after to workshop, record, and perform new works, and often collaborates or performs alongside other accomplished musicians, such as violinists Movses Pogossian and Andrew McIntosh, and cellist Coleman Itzkoff. Thomas earned his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Washington and holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He is the winner of various accolades, including first prize in the 2016 Walter Jurmann Voice Competition. Recent performances by Thomas include his Seattle Opera debut as Tancredi/Tirsi in The Combat, and Otis in the world premiere of Kay Rhie’s opera QUAKE. During the past year, Thomas could be seen performing and recording programs of folk and art song along with his wife Danielle. Relocating from the West Coast amidst the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Danielle and Thomas are currently based in Van Buren, Maine, where they enjoy a life pursuing their passion for making music and embracing a self-sufficient, sustainable lifestyle on their County homestead.Admission is free and/or by donation.Your donation helps support the arts within Northern Maine, and contributes to the Musée’s mission of restoring and preserving the former church of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, the artefacts of its permanent collection, and the broader grounds of its former parish.

The Pelletier Lovejoy Jazz Ensemble
2025-10-19 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
Join us Sunday, October 19th, in welcoming the Pelletier Lovejoy Jazz Ensemble back to the Musée!
Featured in the band are Shelby Pelletier (front-middle), Cori Lovejoy (front-left), Mickey Carter (front-right), David Wells (Back-left), Carl Gallagher (back-middle), and Jon Simonoff (back-right).
This women-led musical collective is delivering live jazz shows across Northern Maine, tapping into a musical genre that has historically remained male-dominated and has been seldomly listened to or encountered throughout Aroostook County.
Initially beginning as a duo in 2023, Shelby Pelletier and Cori Lovejoy have grown their troupe to include a percussionist-drummer, a bass player and three horns. Together, their performances across an array of venues and sites throughout Aroostook and greater Maine have cultivated a growing number of jazz musicians and enthusiasts.
Come hear the ensemble for yourself as they make their stop into Lille!
Admission is free and/or by donation.

Your donation helps support the arts within Northern Maine, and contributes to the Musée’s mission of restoring and preserving the former church of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, the artefacts of its permanent collection, and the broader grounds of its former parish.

40 Thieves: Concert by Folk Duo Travis Cyr & Laura Bagley
2025-10-05 13:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
Join us Sunday, October 5th, for a musical performance by singer-songwriters Travis Cyr and Laura Bagley.
A Maine-based musician and visual artist for over 25 years, Cyr has performed more than 2,000 shows and has released 18 albums all composed of original songs. Cyr’s music and acoustic guitar work blends cerebral, Americana balladry and spacey folk tunes with poetic lyrics, resulting in an oeuvre whose character is lively yet gentle, vastly expansive yet intensely vivid. Cyr describes his work as, “Hypnotizing Psych Folk – kinda like John Prine from Outer Space!”
Laura Bagley joined Cyr nearly two years ago and have together formed the duet, 40 Thieves. Bagley’s expansive, ethereal vocals produce sounds of immense strength and magnitude, yet remain wholeheartedly warm. The combined affect of their musical craft results in vibrant, unexpected notes and rhythmic harmonies.
Cyr is the founder of the Arootsakoostic Music Festival, held annually in July in New Sweden, Maine, and is the editor of a book of short stories currently in the works. Cyr and Bagley aim to spearhead a new music festival this year on September 13 in New Sweden, entitled “Coddiwomple,” set to bring folk and roots artists from across Maine to Aroostook County.
Learn more about the work of Travis and Bagley by visiting the former’s site at www.traviscyr.com!
Admission is free and/or by donation.

Your donation helps support the arts within Northern Maine, and contributes to the Musée’s mission of restoring and preserving the former church of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, the artefacts of its permanent collection, and the broader grounds of its former parish.
