Dieppe teen has a passion for the pipes at local cathedral
Élie LeBlanc taught himself to play massive pipe organ at Moncton's Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption
Friday afternoons are usually quiet at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in downtown Moncton, with visitors touring the digital exhibit of the Monument for Recognition of the Acadian people in the 21st Century, which is housed in the cathedral, or some coming in for quiet reflection.
But this summer, the church is filled with sound from the 5,176 pipes — and four keyboards, 85 stops and 32-note pedalboards — of the Casavant organ every Friday afternoon.
It would be easy to assume it takes a skilled musician with decades of experience to handle this instrument, which is the biggest organ in Atlantic Canada.
But visitors are surprised to learn the organist, Élie LeBlanc, is just 18 years old and started playing the organ three years ago.
LeBlanc, who is from Dieppe, said he developed an interest in learning to play the organ after taking piano lessons for about eight years.
"The piano and organ are very, very different," he said. "It's apples and oranges, really."
So LeBlanc turned to the experts online.
"I watched a lot of videos on YouTube," he said. "It's mostly self-taught."
LeBlanc said when you hit a key on the piano, it produces a loud sound, but a pipe organ will not make a loud sound regardless of how hard you press a key. "It's your stops, your different sounds," he said. "All the different buttons on the organ control different sounds."
"So I had to figure out on my own how to play it."
LeBlanc said he started playing on a smaller organ at his church in Dieppe, but kept it short, playing before mass started and some background music.
Last summer, he started playing the organ for the duration of the mass, while his father, Jean Claude LeBlanc, sang. "It was a success," he said.
LeBlanc said he and his father were asked by a lot of people to play in churches in Moncton, and he has since played the organ at "virtually every French Catholic church" in the Moncton area.
The first time he sat down at the organ in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, he said he was "really intimidated."
"I'm used to about 30 buttons and two keyboards and that's about it," he said.
"This organ is a monster compared to other organs."
LeBlanc said he felt "out of my realm," with more than 100 buttons, numerous sounds and variations.
"There's also buttons near the pedalboard to control if your hands are busy, but your feet aren't."
LeBlanc said he can select different sound settings with his feet. "The same thing with your hands. If your hands are free but your feet are busy, you can press presets with a click of a button."
"It's really a one-of-a-kind."
LeBlanc started to play the organ during masses at the cathedral.
"It's complicated at first, but I told myself when I was starting to play not to complicate myself and to slowly add on a few challenges," he said.
He decided the best approach was to "just to get better and better slowly with time."
"I managed my first mass very well," he said.
Ginette Pellerin is the director of the Momument for Recognition, where LeBlanc is working as a tour guide for the summer.
She said when the cathedral was built in 1940, a smaller organ was installed.
The Casavant was installed in 1955 to mark the bicentennial of the deportation of the Acadians.
"This is a prized possession of this cathedral," she said. "This is a well kept organ."
Pellerin said there are only about five people in the area who have the skills to play the cathedral's organ. She said it has also been used by musicians from other parts of Canada for special concerts and performances.
LeBlanc approached Pellerin about playing the organ as part of his job this summer.
"It thought it would be a good initiative to show the visitors who wish to hear the pipe organ," he said. "It is the best in the Maritimes."
"I was really interested in showing those visitors the power a pipe organ has to offer."
Pellerin said visitors "are enchanted" by LeBlanc's weekly performances that started in mid-July.
LeBlanc said he has received positive feedback from visitors but is quick to tell them "I'm nowhere near professional. I've learned by myself."
And while he may have a passion for the pipe organ, he is undecided whether he will pursue music as a professional career.
"I'll be honest, I'm a little bit afraid to go into music," he said. "I'm scared about just losing that passion, losing that fun, you know?"
"Beethoven himself said it's not playing the wrong notes that's going to make you a bad musician. It's playing without passion."
But LeBlanc said music is a "very important part of my life."
"When I'm on the organ, I have fun," he said. "Here's the thing that I like very much."
Élie LeBlanc performs every Friday afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption on St. George Street in Moncton, until the end of August.
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