Marc Savoy (/sɑːˈvwɑː/ sah-VWAH;[1] born October 1, 1940)[2] is an American musician, and builder and player of the Cajun accordion.
He was born on his grandfather's rice farm near Eunice, Louisiana. His grandfather was a fiddler, who occasionally played with the legendary Dennis McGee, who was once a tenant farmer on his grandfather's property. Marc Savoy began playing traditional music when he was 12 years old.[3]
Savoy acquired a Sidney Brown accordion as a teenager, and within a few years was interested in making his own.[4] After earning a degree in chemical engineering,[5] in 1966 he went into business full-time as an accordion maker and player, based at his Savoy Music Center in Eunice.
His wife is the singer and guitarist Ann Savoy, whom he met in 1975 and married in 1977.[5] He has performed with Robert Bertrand, Dennis McGee, Rodney Balfa, Sady Courville, Dewey Balfa, D. L. Menard, and Michael Doucet, the latter of whom he plays with in the Savoy-Doucet Band. He also plays in the Savoy Family Band with his wife Ann and their sons Joel and Wilson.
He hosts regular jam sessions and mini-festivals at the Savoy Music Center.
Savoy is a recipient of a 1992 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[6]
Marc Savoy (pronounced 'SAH-VWAH') turns back to his worn workbench covered with accordion parts and pauses to compose himself.
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