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This February, renowned musicians and artistic leaders Julian Armour and Guylaine Lemaire celebrate 20 years of marriage. The Ottawa-based couple have contributed significantly to the Canadian music scene for decades now as both performers and arts administrators. Amidst all this busyness, Armour and Lemaire are also the proud parents of four boys.
Armour and Lemaire wear several hats in their professional lives. Armour is the artistic and executive director of Music and Beyond, artistic director of the Chamber Players of Canada, principal cellist of the chamber orchestra Thirteen Strings, and teaches at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Retired violinist and violist Lemaire is the artistic director at CAMMAC, executive director and director of artistic planning for Thirteen Strings.
Julian Armour and Guylaine Lemaire at their wedding (2005).
Like most arts leaders today, both Armour and Lemaire must continually endeavour to bring innovation and creativity to their organizations to maintain relevance. “Our competition isn’t really for people’s money; money is really a secondary issue. It’s for their time,” Armour says when it comes to attracting audiences to Music and Beyond, an Ottawa-based classical music and arts festival that began in 2010.
Though he and his wife run different organizations, they both recognize the importance of outreach to expand their audiences and make classical music more accessible. Lemaire, for example, shared a story of how Thirteen Strings arranged for a bus so that 17 seniors from a retirement home could see a performance. “Trying to explore new ways of getting people out, it’s something I love to do,” she says. Lemaire prioritizes outreach and partnerships in her leadership roles, bringing together organizations such as Thirteen Strings and CAMMAC and working with institutions like the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.
At Music and Beyond, Armour has made an effort to give audience members different entry points into classical music. “I came up with this idea of having a festival that links classical music with other music styles, other art forms and other cultural disciplines,” he says, and describes the result of these collaborations as a whole new hybrid art form. An example was a National Gallery Soirée held in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada. The festival programmed music in every gallery that matched the artwork. Armour mentions one of the byproducts of the event was how it encouraged audience members to sit with art pieces a little longer. “I got tons of mail, and they said, ‘Just looking at that painting while the music is being played … suddenly the painting meant much more to me. I’ve seen that painting a thousand times, and suddenly I feel I really get it.’”
Guylaine Lemaire and Julian Armour.
Like many arts administrators, Armour and Lemaire still see the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affected attendance rates, interest in large-scale events, and even caused some musicians to find other careers. In turn, they have adapted their organizations to the post-pandemic world.
Lemaire credits Thirteen Strings’s “leanness,” in part, for its success in surviving the seismic disruption. However, it is also the orchestra’s flexibility that allowed it to grow through and after the pandemic. “COVID forced us to film our concerts—to do videos—and we would not have done that if it was not for COVID,” she says, adding: “Because we had a presence online, more people could hear us, (unlike at) a concert where it’s whoever is there.” Lemaire says this worldwide epidemic pushed the orchestra to explore and try new things, values that are apparent in their recent shift to a new self-governed model. For their current season, Thirteen Strings is testing the waters with having their musicians plan concerts rather than relying solely on a music director. This unique model has brought the orchestra closer together, allowing the musicians’ voices to be better heard.
Music and Beyond also made a shift during the pandemic. Armour quickly had his team working from home and set about finding a venue to film events. The team ended up filming for 14 days straight! During this time, the company also started doing pop-up concerts on people’s doorsteps to continue building its profile and engaging with the community. Armour found that recording videos helped the festival gain more press with one video reaching eight million views on Facebook. “We’re reaching all these people, and we’re finding that people see the videos and then they come to the festival,” he says.
Guylaine Lemaire and Julian Armour with their sons: Francis, Pascal, Mathis and Philippe.
Through the ups and downs of their professional lives, Armour and Lemaire have still managed to focus on family. The couple tries to engage their sons in their musical world by having them meet the musicians, attend meetings, and help with filming. In the summer, Lemaire has them join her at CAMMAC to participate. “We just want them to have music as part of their life and love it,” Lemaire says. Armour also mentions maintaining a few physical notepads to keep track of responsibilities. “I guess if I could summarize it: I have a big to-do list,” Armour says, “but then I make sure that family kind of supersedes that stuff.”
Armour and Lemaire recognize the difficulties of being pulled in a hundred different directions. What has made them successful in managing that challenge is an understanding that nothing will ever be “all set.” Their adaptability and willingness to learn helps them find balance.
Music and Beyond celebrates its 15th anniversary with its 2025 summer festival July 4-17. www.musicandbeyond.ca
For Thirteen Strings upcoming concerts visit www.thirteenstrings.ca
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