ÉDOUARD LABONTÉ a Franco Albertain, pursued his musical training in Toronto, obtaining a diploma at the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music and continued his musical formation by studying the electric bass at Humber College in Toronto. His previous musical career involved performing leading roles as well as directing musical comedies that providied him with vast stage and performing experiences.
In 1979, Édouard Labonté and Micha Boudreault joined forces and started to organize French musical tours for schools across Canada. The excellent reception they had in schools showed the need for this type of cultural and pedagogical activity.
In 1980 Edouard & Micha Inc. was founded.
Their experience in creating songs with learning materials prepared them for the production Chantons avec Édouard & Micha a multidisciplinary musical and pedagogical kit for the elementary schools. The original songs were added to their repertoire creating a new educational show for their school tours.
In 1984, continuing their pedagogical work, they produced a new musical learning kit, En compagnie d’Édouard & Micha, which contains the album Reflexion for the intermediate level.
Due to popular a new production, Créons avec Édouard & Micha, followed in 1986 adding more original French songs for another show for schools.
Édouard Labonté and Micha Boudreault are the authors, composers and performers of all the songs for the albums mentioned above, songs for which the themes are chosen for the children’s interest. They convey lively themes, very visual, active participation by the children and are adaptable for multimedia productions.
With this strong song and didactic material Édouard and Micha performed for French and Fsl students till the sad passing away of Micha in 2005.
After a year of reconciliation Édouard goes back to action with solo versions of the shows adding more interaction and animation.
For the school year 2018-19, Édouard moves forward with the project AmiÉdouArt. and restructures the Edmicha.com website giving educators and students an access to French activities and videos in accordance to the curriculum, Édouard offers a new option: a day of workshops-shows for schools.
On February 17th 2020, due to covid-19, Édouard gave his last school presentations for 700 FSL students in a TCDSB school gymnasium, giving for a brutal end to 40 years of onsite school performances across Canada.
Summer of 2020 he opened Studio 182 for the Edmicha–École Virtuelle
He Signed up with Ayotree.com giving him access to their application that globally manages all administrative services.
The course titles are: De l’Est à l’Ouest (Geography- History of Canada), L’Électromobile (Fr), and Electromobile (Eng)) (Enviro-Techno-Robo) The themes are taken from the pedagogical Kit Chantons avec Édouard & Micha and are presented in the form of virtual musical shows along with pedagogical activities. In addition to the main theme song there are other songs which engage the children to participate and interact and have fun.
Courses are offered for children 8 to 14 years old and are available in the following contexts:
Teacher and students in their class.
Children and parents at home
For one person
It would be a pleasure to meet you in Studio 182
5 Comments
alberto neira
Quite an interesting story of constant progress1 It’s admirable to see so many years improving your performances while simultaneously resolving many challenges thrown at Ed and Micha and lately to Ed alone! I enjoyed very much looking at the pictures that tell many different stages of your work throughout your life . My whole hearted congratulations Edouard.
Anne Albert-Fincham
Bonjour Édouard
Je ne savais pas qui tu étais quand je t’ai parlé au téléphone. J’ai tes chansons sur des disques en vinyle des années 1980. Mes enfants ont beaucoup aimé ces disques.
Continue ton beau travail!
Anne
Paul Pelchat
Bonjour Édouard,
La première fois que je t’ai rencontré, Micha participait au spectacle auquel j’étais présent. J’ai aussi votre vinyle et mes petits-enfants dansent au rythme de la chanson l’Auto. Félicitation! Malgré tes origines franco-alberaines assez peu connues pour plusieurs, tu as contribué à l’avancement et au goût de la langue française dans la majorité des écoles canadiennes oû le français est enseigné. Ce n’est pas peu dire. Tu as parcouru tous les coins de toutes les provinces et des territoires. Personne ne peut croire que tu es octogénaire en te voyant Édouard. Nous sommes fiers de tes accomplissements dans le monde pédagogique.
Taro
One day out of the blue, my teacher says he has a surprise. He sets up his projector and then Édouard appears. Édouard in all of his glory, says hello and then plays us some tunes. He plays “De l’Est à l’Ouest”, which was composed by him and Micha, whom I don’t know very much about. The song was honestly quite brilliant. At first it seemed ridiculous and funny, but looking back at it makes me realize that’s kind of cool. We had a meeting with Édouard three times a week, and
Ok I don’t know why I did this but thank you Édouard, I’m truly grateful to you for creating memories I’ll never forget. This happened in grade five, and as I’m writing this I’m currently in grade 6. I’m not sure if you remember as you are (no offense) old, but it was with Mr. Tomasz Maciejewski, whom you could never say his name right.
Aussi j’oublie ci tu parle en anglais et ci tu ne peut pas, donne ca a une personne qui peux te traduire en français.
Édouard Labonté
Bonjour Taro
Yes I vividly recall Tomasz’s Class and am very pleased that we both have unforgettable memories of those shared french happenings.
It was very thoughtful of You to communicate with me, it makes my day.
Merci beaucoup!
Édouard