Artists

Nathalie Arsenault has music and dance in her blood. Born and raised in Charlottetown, her roots run deep in the Évangéline region, where her grandfather and his fifteen siblings all played the fiddle. The tradition was passed down to her father, her first teacher, and she grew up in the kitchen parties and family gatherings where music, song, and dance were inseparable from everyday life.

A former Island stepdancing champion, that same irresistible rhythm pulses through everything she plays. As a fiddler and piano player, her music is shaped not only by her deep Acadian roots, but by the many places she has lived — from playing in a reggae band in Jamaica to performing for elders in Tanzania, teaching square dancing in Bolivia, with a strong Cape Breton influence from her time in Chéticamp woven into her sound. Wherever she has gone, she has carried her culture proudly with her — and back home on the Island, she remains a passionate advocate for keeping that tradition alive.