There’s never a dull moment at Augusta’s Cajun & Creole Week. Learn fiddle, accordion, guitar or cooking all day. Dance, jam, eat (!) and soak in the culture all night.
Check out everything that is happening at Augusta during your stay! If you’re taking Cajun & Creole classes, you can mix and match with Country Week classes to create your perfect schedule. Craft classes take place all day, so you can’t mix and match there, but those classes can be a great way for family and friends to join you at camp and have a perfect week alongside you.
Cajun & Creole Week Schedule
July 7-12, 2024
Sunday
3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Check-in
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Dinner
7:00 p.m.: Theme Week Orientations
8:00 p.m.: Group Orientation
9:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.: Welcome Dance
Monday-Thursday
8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.: Breakfast
9:10 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.: Period 1 (including the beloved Morning Jam)
10:20 a.m. -10:50 a.m.: Coffee Break
10:50 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Period 2
12:00 p.m. -1:15 p.m.: Lunch
1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.: Cultural Session
2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.: Period 3
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Period 4
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Dinner
6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.: Mini-Classes (optional)
7:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.: Concerts (Tuesday & Thursday), Dances (every night), Fais Do Do Gumbo Feast (Wednesday) and other evening events!
Friday
8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.: Breakfast
9:10 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. : Period 1
10:20 a.m. -10:50 a.m.: Coffee Break
10:50 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Period 2
12:00 p.m. -1:15 p.m.: Lunch
1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.: Period 3
2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.: Student Showcases and Wrap-Up Events
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Dinner
7:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.: Farewell Dance
All of Augusta’s Summer Theme Weeks are organized in a period model. This means that you can create your daily schedule to study the exact combination of instruments, styles and techniques that is right for you. Most instructors are teaching during 2 of the 4 periods each day, plus participating in jams and dances. You will choose a class during Period 1 and take that same class all week. The same thing goes for Periods 2 and 3 — same class all week. Period 4 has jams and other special events that will change a bit each day. You will end up with three different classes that you are taking all week. Those can all be in one theme week (e.g. Classic Country) or you can take a class from a different theme week each period (e.g. a Country class in Period 1, a Cajun class in Period 2, and another Country class in Period 3). We have worked hard to make sure there is a path for every student each day, no matter your instrument or level.
Cajun Week Staff 2024
Jane Vidrine – Advisor
Jane Vidrine is a musician and music educator from Lafayette, Louisiana. She’s a founding member of the Grammy nominated Magnolia Sisters Cajun Band. She also plays in the family Cajun band with her husband, John Vidrine and son, Jo. And Jane stays musically in touch with her Missouri old-time music roots. “Teaching adults who are interested in delving deep into the traditional music I love is a true privilege that brings me so much joy.” Jane has taught guitar, fiddle, and vocals several times for Cajun & Creole Week at the Augusta Heritage Center. This year, she will teach beginning fiddle – melodies and seconding. As always, she will immerse her students in the songs’ background, lyrics, and meaning.
Amelia Biere
Originally from a small town in Wisconsin, Amelia was exposed to many forms of traditional music at an early age. She grew up listening to her dad sing, play guitar, piano, and fiddle. Fate took her to Minneapolis for college, where there were regular Cajun dances. She got hooked! Mentored by a few of the stalwart musicians of the Twin City music scene, Amelia started learning French, playing and singing. Two bands resulted: Ana and the Bel-tones and Millie and the Mill City Heavyweights. In 2014, Amelia decided to move to the source of it all – Lafayette, LA. There she has been soaking it all in, ever expanding her love for the culture. In addition to playing cajun music, she plays old-time guitar and loves to dance. When not playing music, she is a wedding florist.
Jimmy Breaux
Jimmy Breaux is acknowledged to be one of the best Cajun accordionists of the modern era. The accordion player for the Grammy Award-winning group Beausoleil for over 25 years, he is in the fourth generation of his family to play Cajun music. His great-grandfather was Auguste Breaux and his great aunt, Cléoma Falcon Breaux, sang and played on the first Cajun recording, “Allons à Lafayette.” His grandfather, Amédée Breaux, made the first recording of “Jolie Blonde.” Jimmy’s first solo album, Un ‘Tit Peu Plus Cajun, was recorded in 1991 and is mainly a collection of traditional tunes. His second, Le Chemin Que T’as Pris, was chosen as the best album of 1997 by the Cajun French Music Association. Jimmy Breaux and Friends: Live at Festivals Acadiens was released in 2008. Since retiring from Beausoleil he has enjoyed playing around home with a variety of great musicians.
Michelle Brown
I was born and raised in rural South Louisiana on a farm and I learned to cook at an early age. My mom was a homemaker and cooked 3 meals everyday. I watched and learned from her the ways of Cajun cooking. My culture is known for our great food and where there is food there are many friends. We talk about our next meal while we are eating the one we just prepared. I also like to bake and some of my pastries are served fresh at the local coffee shop downtown Eunice, LA. I am a retired school bus operator of 25 years service to rural schools in Acadia Parish. In my spare time I do sewing and alterations for the public. My passion for sewing began at the age of 9 and is a joyful hobby. Both of my girls wore wedding gowns designed by them and I fashioned the gowns to their unique specifications! I have since taken on quilting and old fashioned tatting. My husband Greg and I have 3 children and 6 grandchildren. Our 2 youngest children Megan Brown Constantin and Briggs Brown are both involved in Cajun music and preservation of our Cajun culture and heritage.
I am looking forward to making new friends thru my Cajun cooking demonstration here at Augusta.
Greg Brown
Instructor Bio Coming Soon
Gina Forsyth
Gina Forsyth is a fiddler, singer/songwriter, and guitarist who lives in Breaux Bridge, LA. Gina is the longtime fiddler with Bruce Daigrepont’s Cajun band, and appears on three of Bruce’s recordings, including his latest, Bienvenu Dans Sud de la Louisiane. Her 2015 CD, Mid-City Aces, is part of the Cajun trio with Cameron Dupuy on accordion and his father, Michael Dupuy on guitar. Known and loved for her fiddling, she has performed and taught Cajun fiddle at Fiddle Tunes, in Port Townsend, WA, Augusta Heritage Center, in West Virginia, and at Dewey Balfa Creole and Cajun Heritage Week, in Louisiana. Gina currently teaches fiddle classes in the traditional music program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Luke Huval
Luke has been immersed in the world of Cajun music and culture for as long as he can remember. Between his parents Terry and Annette, and their love and passion for every facet of Cajun culture, it was hard not to get hooked in one way or another. Luke started learning to sing and play guitar from a young age, and soon after began playing music with other young talents Zach Fuselier and Cameron Dupuy. Nowadays you can find him playing Cajun and country fiddle with a number of groups, and playing accordion with his own group, the Luke Huval Band.
Jesse Lége
Bringing foot stomping’ Cajun music to the world one dance hall at a time… Jesse Lege is the Real Deal! For more than 40 years Jesse Lege, originally from Guydan LA, has been bringing traditional Cajun dance hall music from the dusty back roads of southwest Louisiana, coast to coast and around the world, playing everywhere from local neighborhood dance halls to the largest international festivals. Today, Lege is one of the most-admired Cajun accordionists and vocalists from Southwest Louisiana. He has garnered numerous Cajun French Music Association awards in many categories, including original song for “Memoires Dans Mon Coeur”. In addition to his rich accordion style and soulful singing, his knowledge and vast repertoire that includes many of the earliest recorded and shared Cajun songs is treasured by everyone from other Cajun musicians to the first-time listener.
Blake Miller
Grandson of well known accordion builder Larry Miller, Blake has been surrounded by Cajun music and culture his entire life. Hailing from the small town of Iota Louisiana, Blake, a fluent french speaker and songwriter, managed to acquire a degree in Francophone studier from The University Of Louisiana at Lafayette and in the mean time founded the popular young Cajun band The Pine Leaf Boys and became a member of the premiere Louisiana roots Band The Red Stick Ramblers. He has also served stints in just about every other cajun/creole band of note including Balfa Toujours, Les Malfecteurs and Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole bringing his strong cultural identity and accomplished musicianship to the world. Now plays with the world traveled Revelers for the past 10 years singing and playing his own songs on fiddle and accordion.
Chris Miller
Chris was interested in music from the time he was born. His parents recall that he made a habit of waking early so that he could hear the “French Music” on KLFY’s morning show “Passe Partout.” As Chris approached his teens, he began to devote himself more and more to Cajun music and to teach himself Cajun accordion, guitar, and later fiddle. There were many other local influences besides his closely-knit extended family. Raul and Reoul LeBlanc played the old style of Cajun accordion that Chris grew to love. Harris Leger also provided hours of inspiration at family gatherings and camping trips. The Vanicors provided Chris with many opportunities to play and to learn from veterans of Cajun music’s early years. In 1999 Chris helped to form Louisiana’s Kingfish, which in 2000 released the CD Life in a One-Horse Town. Chris has played throughout the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. and France with Hadley Castille and at the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio with Rodney LeJeune and the Texas Cajun Playboys. His most recent CD Chris Miller and Bayou Roots received CFMA awards for “Recording of the Year,” “People’s Choice,” and “Band of the Year.”
John Vidrine
John has remained deeply immersed in the Culture and Music he was born into in around Mamou Louisiana. John has taught Cajun music on accordion at the Augusta Heritage program for several years, as well as performed with his wife Jane and son Jo, on the Augusta stages. John started learning to play music as a youngster watching and listening to old timers who played at the venues and porches of his hometown and in later years performing those tunes with friends and the family band across the US and in Europe by invitation. The key to playing this music is to be able to hear the melody line and feel the meter intensely. Being able to sing the lyrics or dance to the tune helps tremendously.
Randy Vidrine
Randy Vidrine was born and raised in Ville Platte, Louisiana, in a family that spoke predominantly French. In high school he began playing guitar in a “ French” band, as it was known in those days. They did not call the music they were playing “Cajun” until a few years later. After going off to college and starting a family, he was introduced to Cory McCauley, and he began to get more serious about playing traditional Cajun music. McCauley Reed Vidrine recorded one album on vinyl before splitting up. Randy continued to play on guitar and vocals with Mitch Reed on fiddle. This duo played together for many years, touring and recording CDs with Tasso, Mamou Prairie Band, Charivari, and The Lafayette Rhythm Devils. The Rhythm Devils continue today, although Mitch has since departed from the band. Charivari recorded CDs for Rounder Records, including I Want to Dance With You, and A Trip to the Holiday. The band toured across the entire United States and countries such as England, Portugal, and others. Many of these tours included music and vocal workshops on Cajun music. Randy’s vocals have been described as “high and lonesome” and are all done in the French dialect of the Prairie Cajuns that live in the area where Randy was raised. In 2012 Randy was inducted into the Wall of Fame at the world famous Fred’s Lounge in Mamou, LA, where he still plays monthly with The Lafayette Rhythm Devils and with Jamie Berzas and Cajun Tradition. When not playing with The Lafayette Rhythm Devils or Cajun Tradition, Randy can usually be seen playing trio gigs with Jimmy Breaux and occasionally with his old bandmate, Mitch Reed.