Southeastern music students to pay tribute to family's musical heritage
Thursday, October 17, 2019 
by: Tonya Lowentritt
CAJUN MUSIC TRIBUTE - Two Southeastern Louisiana University students will pay artistic homage to their family’s musical heritage in a free music recital. Carley Duet, right, and Brandi Callais Brumfield, cousins from Cut Off, will honor their Uncle Vin Bruce, a prominent Cajun musician in the 50s and 60s in a free music recital Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. in Pottle Auditorium.
HAMMOND – Two Southeastern Louisiana University students will pay artistic homage
to their family’s musical heritage in a free music recital. Carley Duet and Brandi
Callais Brumfield, cousins from Cut Off, will honor their Uncle Vin Bruce, a prominent
Cajun musician in the 50s and 60s.
Duet, a music education major, will present her junior recital Oct. 23, at 6
p.m., in Pottle Auditorium. Accompanied by Brumfield, a graduate student in guitar
performance, the duo will present two of their uncle’s compositions arranged for voice
and guitar in collaboration with Southeastern Instructor of Guitar Patrick Kerber.
“The songs ‘Dans de Claire de la Lune’ and ‘Si tum’aime’ were staples in Vin
Bruce’s repertoire typically performed in a Cajun band setting,” Kerber said. “For
this recital, the songs will be performed as art songs for soprano and classical guitar.”
As a successful touring and recording artist, Bruce recorded solo albums and
worked in the studio with many prominent musicians, such as Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley
for Columbia Records in Nashville, Kerber said. Bruce’s performance career took him
to the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride, among other notable venues, ultimately
becoming known as the “King of Cajun Singers.”
“These two excellent students are taking this unique opportunity to put the skills
they have developed as serious music students to use, developing music that they are
both personally connected to and presenting it in a sophisticated fashion,” Kerber
said. “Whether music is created for the dance hall or popular radio, good music can,
with proper skills, be developed for presentation on the concert stage. The key is
to have the skills and creative will to accomplish this successfully. I am impressed.”
For more information about the concert, contact the Department of Music and Performing
Arts at 985-549-2184.
