FARMINGTON — On Friday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m., at University of Maine-Farmington Nordica Auditorium, the Arts Institute of Western Maine will present Boréal Tordu, a Maine-based musical combo rooted in the traditional music of the Acadians, the original Frenchspeaking settlers of Maine.

The concert will celebrate the group’s most recent album, “Les Chevaliers,” drawing on traditional and contemporary themes in Acadian, Cajun, Québécois, Manouche, Maritime and Downeast music.

This concert kicks off a weekend tour concluding the following night at the Sangerville Grange in Sangerville.

Founded by Acadian cousins Steve Muise on fiddle and accordéon and singer/songwriter/dobroist Robert Sylvain, the band also features Pip Walter on guitar and backing vocals and Andy Buckland on upright bass.

Boréal Tordu’s 2006 album, “La Bonne Vie,” was called “an inspiration to the Franco-American community” by Dirty Linen Magazine and was highlighted on the PBS series “Now with Bill Moyers.” Thrice nominated for the Portland Phoenix readers’ poll award for Best World Music Act, Boréal Tordu continues to innovate in a genre uniquely its own.

Opening for Boréal Tordu are the Franklin County Fiddlers, the multi-stylistic fiddle band from Mt. Blue High School, directed by Steve Muise. The FCF has performed internationally from Québec and Nova Scotia to Ireland and most recently, in 2009, combined a concert tour of the deep south with Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans.

Nordica Auditorium is located on the second floor of Merrill Hall (elevator available), at the corner of Main and Academy Streets in Farmington.

Cash admission at the door; no advance ticket sales. Adults cost $8, seniors $7 and children under 16 and UMF students are free.

For further information, visit http://www.borealtordu. com or www.artsinstitute.org, or call Sarah Maline at 778-1062.