UMass Dartmouth celebrated the end of the semester by bringing two musicians together who haven’t performed together in a decade.

Josée Vachon and Lucie Therrien, two performers of traditional Franco-American music, last joined up at the university in 2005. On Sunday, just days before the fall semester ended, the two gathered at the Center for Performing and Visual Arts for a concert.

Vachon sings and plays guitar. Therrien did the same, but also performed on the piano and Celtic drum. The two performed almost entirely in French, with an occasional line of English mixed in.

Vachon said she had limited formal training. Her parents bought her a guitar at age 15 so that she could entertain her relatives during family gatherings. At the time, she didn’t know she had singing talents that were career-worthy.

“I started singing in college at the University of Maine – and only because I worked for a French newspaper on campus,” said Vachon, who initially went to school to become a language arts teacher. “They were trying to promote anything that celebrated our culture. The next thing I knew, the newspaper editor sent my name out to three festivals in Maine.”

Her hobby soon became a career. Vachon was invited to host her own TV show in New Hampshire. The show, which was in French, opened and closed with a song and featured interviews with French-speaking guests from around New England. She said that, because of the exposure from the show, she was invited to other countries to perform.

Today she tours and said she does school assemblies to help promote the French Canadian language.

“I share the traditions and songs of my culture,” said Vachon. “I didn’t know it would be special some day. They’re just family gatherings. But suddenly you realize, when you’re in concert, that’s what people want to hear and relive.”

One song that Therrien said is always a hit (and one of her favorites) is a song called “Memere,” the French Canadian word for grandmother.

“It talks about how they had to assimilate when they came here. It ends with [the narrator] asking her grandmother ‘Why is is when I talk to you in English, you always answer in French?’” said Therrien.

She started playing piano with her father at an early age before launching into a lengthy formal musical education. Therrien lived in Quebec until her early twenties when she moved to the United States.

She said Montreal draws a wide array of people from around the world, and this outside influence has influenced the music.

“The Franco-Americans have kept the music they came over with in the 1850s, and that’s what they’ve like to come to hear,” she said. “Quebec’s music, since 1850, developed its own way. Franco-Americans are pretty much the keepers of folk. Quebec music has developed into everything – rock, rap. We have it all in French.”

The two performed to a packed theater, and many of those in attendance sang along to the more popular songs in French. Gerard Bourassa, a New Bedford resident, was ecstatic to see the two back together again.

“These are my two favorites,” said Bourassa. “This is a historic day when we have two of the most outstanding Franco-American performers of New England in the same concert hall.”