Régine Chassagne
Encyclopedia
Régine Chassagne is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist
musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler
.
, Quebec
, Canada, and grew up in St-Lambert
, a suburb south of Montreal. Her parents emigrated from Haiti
during the dictatorship of François Duvalier
, which is alluded to in the Arcade Fire song "Haiti", in which she sings, Mes cousins jamais nés hantent les nuits de Duvalier ("My unborn cousins haunt Duvalier's nights").
Chassagne earned a B.A. in communication studies at Concordia University in 1998, and went on to study jazz voice briefly at McGill University
. She was singing jazz at an art opening at Concordia in 2000 when Butler met her and persuaded her to join his band; after line-up changes, only the two of them were left. They married in 2003. She plays many instruments on stage, including the accordion
, drums, xylophone
, hurdy-gurdy, keyboards
and organ
.
Chassagne has also been involved with a medieval band called Les Jongleurs de la Mandragore, and a jazz band, Azúcar. She also wrote the music for the two-minute David Uloth sketch "The Shine," and contributed to the UNICEF benefit project as part of the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative, performing the song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?
" along with Win Butler
.
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler
Win Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
.
Life and career
Régine Chassagne is a Canadian musician born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada, and grew up in St-Lambert
Saint-Lambert, Quebec
Saint-Lambert is a Canadian city in the province of Quebec located opposite Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. Saint-Lambert was named for either the early French Canadian hunter Lambert Closse or for Roman Catholic Bishop Lambert of Maastricht...
, a suburb south of Montreal. Her parents emigrated from Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
during the dictatorship of François Duvalier
François Duvalier
François Duvalier was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" . He opposed a military coup d'état in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform...
, which is alluded to in the Arcade Fire song "Haiti", in which she sings, Mes cousins jamais nés hantent les nuits de Duvalier ("My unborn cousins haunt Duvalier's nights").
Chassagne earned a B.A. in communication studies at Concordia University in 1998, and went on to study jazz voice briefly at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
. She was singing jazz at an art opening at Concordia in 2000 when Butler met her and persuaded her to join his band; after line-up changes, only the two of them were left. They married in 2003. She plays many instruments on stage, including the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, drums, xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, hurdy-gurdy, keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
.
Chassagne has also been involved with a medieval band called Les Jongleurs de la Mandragore, and a jazz band, Azúcar. She also wrote the music for the two-minute David Uloth sketch "The Shine," and contributed to the UNICEF benefit project as part of the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative, performing the song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?
Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?
"Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" is a charity single inspired by "Do They Know It's Christmas?". It was released on October 11, 2005 in Canada on Vice Records by a cast of rock artists and other performers under the name "North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative"...
" along with Win Butler
Win Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
.