Claire Guimond is the winner of the Orchestras Canada Betty Webster Award for 2019. Mme Guimond will receive the award on Friday, October 18th, at the opening concert of Arion Baroque Orchestra’s 2019-20 concert season. 2019-20 marks Mme Guimond’s final season as Artistic Director of the Montreal-based ensemble.
The Betty Webster Award is presented each year to an individual or organization that has made a sustained and significant contribution over a number of years to the Canadian orchestral community, with an emphasis on leadership, education and volunteerism. It was established in 2002 to honour Orchestras Canada’s founding Executive Director and is a tribute to Mrs. Webster’s visionary leadership and her extraordinary contributions to the health and vitality of orchestras right across Canada.
Mme Guimond founded Arion with three McGill University colleagues in 1981. Initially a quartet, over time the group expanded into one of North America’s best-known baroque orchestras. The orchestra features both established and emerging soloists and conductors along with Arion’s accomplished musicians in a busy program of concerts in Montreal, national and international touring, and recordings.
Mme Guimond has served not only as artistic director and flutist with Arion, but also as executive director for much of her time with the orchestra. A strong supporter of young musicians, she maintains a full calendar of teaching through masterclasses and private lessons.
The 2019-20 season will mark Claire’s 39th and final season at Arion’s helm. This year she is joined by co-artistic director Mathieu Lussier who will succeed her in 2020-21. It is a tribute to Mme Guimond’s hard work and success with Arion that Montreal is now seen as a thriving centre for early music that both attracts renowned international soloists and supports the baroque musicians that perform there.
In response to receiving the award, Claire Guimond said, “I am touched and honoured to receive the Betty Webster award from Orchestras Canada. I would also like to express my appreciation of Orchestras Canada for their important contribution to the vitality of our Canadian orchestras. I am grateful and would like to thank all those who believe in, work for, support and enrich musical life in Canada. Together we make a difference! I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Arion’s board members who have generously supported the orchestra for almost 40 years.” The award includes a plaque and a donation to an orchestra of the winner’s choosing. Mme Guimond has asked that this year’s donation be directed to Arion Baroque Orchestra.
The national jury was chaired by OC board member and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Director of Artistic Operations, Jennifer MacDonald, and included orchestral managers Hugh Donnan (Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra), Jean-François Phaneuf (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra) and Joanne Harada; musician and arts manager Françoise Henri (Société pour les arts en milieux de santé – SAMS Montréal); and accountant and OC secretary-treasurer Karen Wilkinson, FCPA, FCA.
Speaking about the Award, jury chair Jennifer MacDonald noted, “the jury was touched with the number of impressive contributions being made to the orchestral landscape by individuals and organizations across Canada. The jury was particularly struck by the work accomplished by Mme Guimond as an artistic director, as an administrator, and as a musician in building Arion from a small, talented ensemble to a full baroque orchestra. Because of her vision, she and Arion have proven themselves capable of attracting international talent to a flourishing local early music scene; putting Montreal, Quebec and Canada on the baroque music world map.”
A letter from 
I should like to advocate the possibility of developing socially-inclusive, community-based ‘open’ youth ‘orchestras’, in partnership with established professional orchestras throughout Canada, as a strategic and practical response to the report’s understandably challenging and uncompromising demands, drawing on the Setúbal Youth Ensemble model which I have developed over the past five years through my Music Festival in Portugal. In brief, through an open auditioning process which makes no assumptions of any Eurocentric orchestral structure, the resulting Ensemble has recruited and maintained roughly a quarter of its membership from the aural tradition, reflecting the local population of immigrants from former African and South American colonies of Portugal, another quarter comprising young people with various disabilities and special needs, and approximately half coming via the mainstream of music education – all chosen for their talent. With the instrumentation dependent on the selected young musicians rather than the other way about, there is no standard repertory and therefore all the Ensemble’s music has be specially composed or arranged: this has given unique creative opportunities to a new generation of composers, embracing unusual instrumental combinations (including the use of accessible technology, where appropriate) and inventing special notations to enable the participation of those unable to read the conventional musical language. This Ensemble is Setúbal’s official ‘youth orchestra’.
In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in recognition of the need for access to the arts and music for the special needs community. Music is part of the human experience and all people have a right to be a part of that. Yet, traditional concert events have barriers that are difficult to overcome: bright lights, loud sounds, high cost, and the expectation of proper concert etiquette and behaviour can make attending orchestral concerts impossible for many with special needs. Arts education opportunities that are truly accessible are also few and far between. Physical accessibility is only part of the equation; true accessibility involves removing all barriers, which requires creative thinking on the part of arts organizations.
The benefits of taking part in accessible music making and concerts goes beyond just the music (which is a great incentive in itself!). Participating in an accessible adapted music program can facilitate social skill development through encouraging turn taking and engaging with peers. The sensory stimulation provided by making and listening to music in a controlled environment can aid with self-regulation and promote well-being. For parents of children with special needs, the opportunity to engage with the arts in a way that is comfortable for their child is priceless.
As part of OC’s 
How has this work changed over time? “It’s an evolution. I’ve been involved in this work since 1982,” Donna says. “At that time we didn’t have any terminology for the lack of diversity in audiences, but there was a conversation.” It took a while for organizations to move on what they heard. In the 1990s, people started using the term audience development, and some foundations started putting funds towards this. Over time, audience development became to be seen as a term more concerned with sales, i.e. developing an audience to purchase tickets. The term community engagement represented the next step. “First we have to cultivate the community to be interested in what we’re doing,” Donna says.
The word Digital invokes a wide spectrum of reactions from arts administrators, from screams of delight to… just screams. Whether capital ‘D’ digital is something that is embedded into your organization’s DNA, or just something that you think the staff millennial does, orchestras are engaging with their audiences on digital platforms in ways that are new, exciting, and scary. In preparation for our 
Although conversations about integrating digital technologies into our arts organizations are nothing new, the way we speak about it needs to change. “The term Digital is one of those zeitgeist-y terms,” Fiona says. “It’s a disastrous term that makes people feel inadequate. It’s okay not to know what that word means, because it doesn’t really mean anything.” We tend to use the term as a catch-all for being active online, but don’t always know what this looks like. Orchestras want to be digitally active, but it’s not as simple as just livestreaming everything we do. We need to strategically choose what we present online in order to get the most impact from our limited time and money.
The OM at School provides an opportunity for meaningful encounters between students and musicians, in the form of workshops held in schools, and by welcoming school groups to rehearsals and concerts. Last December, the art works of some 15 kindergarten students at École Notre-Dame-des-Neiges embellished the foyer of the Maison symphonique. The students, who attended the dress rehearsal, were able to see their works on display, and to present one as a gift to conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In preparation for the outing, the students had learned about Schumann’s Piano Concerto, one of the works on the program, and were paid a visit by the OM’s artistic partner, conductor Nicolas Ellis, who answered their questions.
Playing it Forward aims to provide a forum for young musicians and to support their development through mentoring, master classes and other activities. The 
Maestro Kerry Stratton is our friend and a friend to classical music lovers across the nation, and internationally due to his incredible career. He is a household name in Toronto; in addition to being an extraordinary conductor, Kerry has been a broadcaster for three decades at the New Classical FM. For the last five years, Maestro Kerry has energetically lead the Symphony in the Gardens at Casa Loma every Tuesday night of the spring, summer, and early fall, playing to an audience of thousands each week, many of whom had never experienced the wonder of an orchestral performance. Kerry’s conducting is magnetic, energetic, fun, impassioned, and vigorous…the perfect foil to lure in unsuspecting and budding classical music lovers and they return, in droves. 
The real magic in Kerry lies in his witty, wickedly, knowledgeable mind, which ALS cannot affect. And so in his third iteration, Maestro Kerry, Artistic Director, will continue to program beautiful entertainment for as long as he is able. 