La Bottine Souriante (1983-1987) is the first ensemble Bernard Simard toured with. More than 300 concerts in four years. This was also the first concert recorded by Radio-Canada. The band went on tour in the United States performing 40 shows on the West Cost during 1984 and 20 more on the East Cost in 1985. That summer they toured in Europe: Rennes and Saint-Chartier (France), Bruxelles (Belgium), Roskilde (Danmark), Nyon (Switzerland), and recorded a radio show in Cologne (Germany). In 1986-1987, La Bottine Souriante tours widely through Ontario, Yukon, British-Columbia and West Cost of United States while been often invited to stage numerous concerts in Quebec. Bernard Simard made his first album with that ensemble and then he went his own separate way.

Bernard then starts Manigance - a memorable dialogue between two different styles coming from  the Lanaudière region and Québec City. From 1987 to 1990, Manigance regularly tours in France and in Québec, until 1991 when the ensemble splits for other projects. The band still emerges from time to time, but the road  is calling. In 1992, Bernard settles in France where he will spend nine years. Still, Manigance have marked its time and in 2004 they are invited for a comeback during the Festival Mémoire et Racines, in Joliette (Canada). Radio-Canada hears about the project and seizes the opportunity to record the concert au they did ten years before.  Two concerts follow: the Festival international des arts traditionnels in Québec city and La Veillée de l'Avant-Veille at Club Soda in Montréal (2004).

From 1994 till 2001, Bernard Simard travels around France with Gwazigan, a Quebecois music ensemble he founded with friends - three Bretons and one Malagasy, all of them living nearby Rennes. They performed extensively troughout France in cities like: Limoges, Saint-Malo, Lisieux, Moulins, Lorient Festival Interceltique, Nantes Festival d'été, Saint-Brieuc, Langon Les Nuits Atypiques, Cléguerec, Quimper, of course Paris and in 1998 they toured  England.

In the year 2000 the band had a very productive trip to Québec in order to record their new work  for the picky ears of André Marchand. The band releases their second album  Y'avait du monde.

At the same time, between 1996 and 2001,  Bernard was invited to join Cabestan, an ensemble originally from Brest in Britanny specialized in sea chanties. They visit every town in that region, plus a good part of France, Netherlands and Italy. They also tour in Québec in 1996 having their concert at Maison de la culture Frontenac recorded by Radio-Canada.
Other ensembles with whom Bernard played ? Les Clochards Célestes: 25 concerts in France in 1992, Migration (group of dancers from Québec) in 1989 in France; Matante Alys from Sherbrooke, 20 concerts in the West Coast of the United States in 1981; Matawin (québécois music ensemble from Brittany); Nuked (Irish music ensemble from Brittany); Tabarnak, three Bretons and one Québécois touring in Gabon in 1997; Ben Embelle, Les P'tits Bûcheux, La Tuque Bleue, Les Lutins sans Lutrins...

While being part of many ensembles, Bernard Simard would break his routine by accepting solo shows or welcoming impromptu concerts, seizing for instance opportunities such as touring Ireland with Eric Favreau and Pierre Laporte and playing with renowned musicians as Sean Keane, The Chieftains and Charlie Pigott De Dannan  in 2001. Some musicians from Caen (France) invited Simard twice to play at  Jyfoutou, a reunion of more than 25 regional artists at the Zénith Concert Hall. While in Brittany, he is called upon about a dozen time to sing and play at various regional events for France-Québec Associations between 1992 and 2001.

Bernard’s performances, be it solo singing at FIAT  in Québec city (1992-2002) or at La Boîte à musique in Longpré (Belgium, 1994) or accompanying seniors at the Festival of American Folklife in Washington (1989),  traditional music gives the unique opportunity and flexibility for the artist to interact with other performers and get together spontaneously, the freedom to ‘’play by ear’’ as we say ‘’from the heart’’ as Simard would put it. Years go by Simard’s sensibility keeps growing. In 2000, the Agence Culturelle Bretonne from Nantes requested that he choose 16 musicians to be part of Chemins de l’Atlantique, a concert to reunite Britanny, Ireland and Quebec through their respective musical paths. Right away he had the names of the musicians coming from Quebec; similarly, Simard and many musicians from Britanny are totally familiar to each other. Thus, he will be asked to travel to Ireland and handpick their representatives by direct contact  rather than judging them by their recordings.

From 2002 till 2004, Bernard joins the northern wind… Le Vent du Nord ! This Quebecois band is launched in the American East Coast, and later in 2003 it participates of a series of Folk Festivals in Canada - Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa in Canada - and then Chicago, Burlington et Sebastopol (California) in the USA. The group is invited to a few festivals in Québec (Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Francofolies de Montréal, Montmagny, etc), but mainly performs in the US for schools, universities and Folk Fests (LEAF, Folk Songs, etc) In 2004, the band performs for the National Geographicsy and during the same year Radio-Canada records one of their concerts presented at Maison de la Culture Frontenac in Montréal  (2004). Le Vent du Nord’s first album, Maudite Moisson, was awarded the Juno 2003 prize in the category Roots & traditional album of the year: Group and was also nominated for the Félix 2004 prize in the traditional album category as well as they were presented with the Opus 2004 prize (Concert of the Year – Jazz, World Music, Live Memories: Le Vent du Nord. Radio-Canada Cultural Network jointly with Maison de la Culture Frontenac, 16 avril 2004). During 2004 though, Bernard leaves Le Vent du Nord. One of the last concerts he does with that band is during a special show with the Irish ensemble The Chieftains on CBC Television in Halifax: The Chieftains in Canada (May 2004).

 In 2004 Bernard briefly joins Michel Bordeleau, Pierre Laporte and Normand Miron to perform in Trio à Quatre. Going solo again, Bernard gives a show in December 2004 with the Danse-cadence Dance Compagny  for Boston’s Christmas Revels at Harvard University: 18 shows in front of more than twenty thousand people. In 2005, Constantinople ensemble extends to Bernard an invitation to join them for their new show Que le Yable les emporte!!!  at Pierre-Mercure concert hall, 31 March 2005; th band from Montréal plays Medieval, Renaissance and Mediterranean, and Radio-Canada recordings the entire show. Bernard,eager to perform the tunes of the show as many times as possible, and Constantinople enter a studio to make Que le Yable les emporte!!! into a CD.

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