I met Michel at this home in the centre of Montreal. Large pictures of Marilyn Monroe grace the walls of his living room, which is furnished simply and comfortably. The flat looks out onto an enclosed garden. He shares this garden with his neighbours in the housing co-op where he lives and pursues his musical career.

Like all artists, Michel leads a life in which financial instability is balanced by the pleasure he takes in creating and performing music. This music expresses his innermost feelings and allows him to reach out to others in a language that is international. He is faithful to his quebecois origins. However, he sees his identity as a point of departure from which he can share with many different kinds of people, and his music serves as witness to this desire.

Michel was born in Temiscamingue in 1951. He is the sixth of seven children, and he has been paraplegic from birth. At the age of 13, Michel discovered the guitar. A lifelong love affair began. Michel knew immediately that he wanted to become a professional musician, despite his mother's preference that the choose a more secure operation. A self-proclaimed "hard-head," Michel followed the course that he had set for himself. He sang in churches and played in bands at weddings and social events, studying music with the nuns when he was young. He moved to Montreal in 1970 and took private lessons.

Montreal's "boites a chansons" were popular at the time, in the way that coffeehouses were current all over North America. Performing here, Michel adopted the romantic balladeer style that was the hallmark of Quebec's unique music scene. Later, Michel went to study in San Francisco, where he learned the ragtime music of American composer Scott Joplin. Though ragtime is usually played on piano, Michel adapted the technique for classical guitar. Like so many of his peers of that period, he travelled Europe and North Africa for nearly a year, absorbing diverse cultural influences.

All of this exposure resulted in a style which he refers to as neo-classical -- more informal than classical music and more complex than New Age. The sound is warm and soothing, with a texture and tone that feels easy and engaging at the same time.

He claims he doesn't listen to music, preferring to reach into his own imagination to produce the melodies that appear on his latest release, Dreamland Guitar Stories. But I couldn't help noticing a cassette of Jimi Hendrix near his tape deck. Michel laughingly admitted his love and admiration for the late guitar genius. Michel is fond of leather jackets and playing pool with his friends, but the concerts he gives are more in keeping with his personality: serene, dignified, relaxed.

His performing career has taken off over the last ten years. In 1984 he gave a private show for Rod Stewart and his entourage. Two years later he opened for Donovan at the Spectrum. In 1988 he was invited to play at the Gala Opening for National Access Awareness Week in Ottawa. This year, he performed at Independence 92 in Vancouver, where he was the official francophone spokesperson for Quebec.

Michel's active involvement with the disability community is relatively recent, even though he has used a wheelchair all his life. He feels that as a musician he can bring something personal to an issue he feels strongly about: human rights. He feels deeply that people with disabilities have a hard time penetrating the employment barrier. He quotes a quebecois poet who once said, "The best way to kill a man is to keep him from working."

On television, which he finds is the most influential medium we have, people with disabilities are practically invisible. These problems have to be overcome, collectively. Governments must do their part by promoting, publicizing and, most importantly, demystifying the disability community.

Talent and stubbornness have taken Michel beyond the restrictions of a wheelchair. He is comfortable with himself, which he credits to the loving support of his family. But he too has faced some challenges that other musicians don't encounter. The music business is difficult to begin with, and Michel has paid his dues and continues to work hard at composing, practising his instrument and promoting his career. A wheelchair adds another dimension of difficulty. He has created musical themes for programmes on Radio-Canada and CBC, but other broadcasters have what Michel calls "narrow doors" -- literally and figuratively. You don't need legs to play the guitar. He sincerely believes that though there has been some evolution in attitudes, we still have to struggle until people with disabilities are accepted as simply different in the way that we are all different from each other.

Michel is not complaining. These days, he's a very happy man. After 20 years of persistent and gradual development, his career is now blossoming. And better yet, he's in love. It's not the first time in his life this has happened, but it's the best, most mature love he's known. The old saw about life beginning at 40 seems to be true for Michel Provencher.

-- Elaine Shatenstein

From Abilities Magazine, Issue 13