Who is Ghislaine Cormier, the winner of the CFMA Unsung Hero Award? Read on.
The board of the Canadian Folk Music Awards announced late last week that Ghislaine Cormier is the recipient of this year’s Unsung Hero Award.
The award recognizes the contributions of people working behind the scenes, often without recognition or adequate recompense, to foster, promote, and encourage Canada’s music and cultural scenes.
Ghislaine Cormier has worked for more than 15 years building the Francophone and Acadian communities of Prince Edward Island.
Ghislaine has been the executive director of the Fédération culturelle de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard since 2009 and she has created and managed several large-scale cultural and tourism projects. Those include Carnaval en Promenade; ArtSmarts/GéniArt and Rendez-vous de la francophonie.
She is also the co-owner of Kaneshii Vinyl Press, the only vinyl record manufacturer east of Toronto, and the new crowdfunding platform RecordFUND/DiskFUNCTIONAL.
She has represented the Francophone community for more than 15 years on several boards, including those of Folk Music Canada and Music PEI, Home Routes/Chemin chez nous.
The CFMAs chose Ghislaine for the award based on numerous recommendations from her colleagues attesting to her dedication to the arts, and to the personal qualities she brings to her work.
This includes her capacity for building budgets, partnerships, teams, consensus and excitement.
“She is masterful at empowering those around her, finding the resources to bring ideas to life and stepping back to allow light to shine where it must,” according to a CFMA news release.
“She has an amazing resume of experience and accomplishments and we can’t think of a better recipient of this year’s award than Ghislaine Cormier.”
The 18th edition of the CFMAs takes place March 31 to April 23 in Vancouver, B.C.
The official awards concerts will be held Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2 (6:00-8:30 p.m. PT) at the Mel Lehan Hall at St. James Community Square.
The Rogue Folk Club is hosting, and each night features live performances from five CFMA nominees and the presentation of 10 awards.
The Unsung Hero Award will be presented Saturday, April 1.
