FORT KENT, Maine — It’s a long way from the auditorium stage at the University of Maine at Fort Kent to the Sydney Opera House, but for St. John Valley native Melanie Saucier, the path has been a clear one.
Saucier has been singing and performing in public since before she could walk and is currently a student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston studying music and voice.
Over the past 17 years there have been state, provincial, national and international music awards, but for the 19-year-old classical singer, any accolades pale when compared to the joy music can bring.
“I just have a love of music,” Saucier said Saturday during a phone interview. “It’s really an appreciation of what music can do.”
It’s an appreciation that began literally at her father’s knee.
Her father and longtime Fort Kent Lions Club member Gary Saucier was in the middle of a solo rendition of “Daddy’s Little Girl” during the club’s Pride of the Lion Show.
As part of the act, he was serenading his then 2-year-old daughter, who was perched on his lap on the UMFK stage.
“At one point I decided to sing along,” Melanie Saucier said. “I just grabbed the mic and went for it.”
Gary Saucier remembers that evening, and his daughter’s antics over the course of the previous evening’s performance.
“The first night of the show, I had her sitting in a rocking chair when I was singing,” he said. “All of a sudden she started making faces and the audience reacted to her. The more they reacted, the more she made those faces.”
And so it was a star was apparently born.
By the time she was 4 years old, Melanie Saucier was a regular singer during Mass in Catholic churches on both sides of the United States-Canadian border, and when she turned 6, classical voice lessons began with a music coach in Drummond, New Brunswick.
Once a week, Melanie Saucier said, she and her mother, Diane Nadeau-Saucier, would grab sandwiches at a local restaurant and hop in the car for the 90-minute drive to Drummond.
“Those were our Thursday evenings,” Melanie Saucier said. “It was enjoyable but it took a lot of time.”
In addition to the weekly music lessons, the Sauciers logged countless miles on the road traveling to regional and national music competitions around Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec.
There were times the family drove to St. John, New Brunswick, for a competition and, when it was over, hopped right back in the car for the four-hour drive back to Fort Kent.
“It was absolutely worth it,” Nadeau-Saucier said. “It was always a joy [and] not a matter of winning, but of the experience of going was a joy for her, but I think she brought us more joy than she can imagine.”
It may have been about the experience, but Melanie Saucier also has earned her share of awards over the years.
Among them are most outstanding vocalist at the NB Competitive Festival of Music; senior and junior festival star at the Victoria County Music Festival in New Brunswick; and first prizes at the Découvertes de la Chanson de Magog, Québec; Festival de la chanson, St-Ambroise, Québec; Sommet de la Chanson de Kedgwick, New Brunswick; and Concours Amateur Festival Western de St-Tite, Québec.
All that competitive singing and exposure led to invitations to perform at festivals in Maine and Massachusetts and veterans’ events around Maine and outside of the state.
“Veterans have always had a special place in my heart,” Melanie Saucier said. “My father is a Vietnam vet [and] they have sacrificed so much for us. This is just a small thing I can do for them.”
Saucier remembers the first time she sang at the veterans’ home in Caribou when she was around 8 or 9.
“My costume was a patriotic tuxedo with American flags all over it,” she recalled with a laugh. “In more recent years I’ve not dressed up much like that.”
But she has gone on to sing at national veterans conventions, base commander homecomings and at the special centennial celebration at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago.
Most recently, Melanie Saucier was invited to be part of a 16-member choir that traveled to Australia last July for a festival of choirs.
“We were a group from the conservatory as well as choir singers from around Boston,” she said. “We sang with choirs from places like Singapore, Guam, Hawaii. It was great to mingle with all of these musicians.”
The choirs took to the stage at the iconic Sydney Opera House, an experience Saucier described as surreal.
“When they brought us on stage for our first rehearsal, I remember everyone was pulling out their phones to take pictures,” she said. “But I did not, I wanted my memory to serve me well and it was just overwhelming and humbling to think how many fantastic performers had been on that stage.”
While saying she enjoys all types of music, Saucier is drawn to classical and operatic music, which she said best suits her mezzo-soprano vocal ability.
“Music has no language,” she said. “Music can transcend any barrier and is such a powerful force [and] as a musician I feel so privileged to be able to bring that gift to the world.”
Raised in a bilingual setting — both her parents speak fluent French — Melanie Saucier is comfortable performing in the language of her parents in addition to having a song repertoire that includes 17 languages according to her mother.
Music, Melanie Saucier said, holds a very important place in a world becoming ever more technological.
“It does not matter what language the song is or who the composer is, everyone can gain something from a piece of music,” Saucier said. “The arts inspire creativity.”
Currently halfway through her program at the New England Conservatory, Saucier said she would like to go on to earn advanced degrees in music and then perhaps teach.
“But there is time for things to change,” she said. “I am pleased to do whatever my voice chooses to do.”
