Justin Duhaime is a passionate guitarist, composer and teacher with a deep commitment to music. He has sold out concerts at various venues and festivals throughout Ottawa. Justin Duhaime is the recipient of the Ottawa Arts Council’s 2018 RBC Emerging Artist Award, the first musician to ever receive the award. As a freelance guitarist Duhaime has performed in a wide array of musical styles. Most recently, he has emerged as a leading figure in the jazz manouche scene in Ottawa with his group Gypsy Muse. Duhaime is fluent in French and English and has been teaching guitar in both languages since 2005. He has a self-published instructional guitar book, published over 300 videos on YouTube, composed over 40 pieces and is sponsored by DK Guitars.
At the age of 12 he bought his first guitar. At 14 years old, he was practicing and composing 6 to 16 hours a day. At 18, he took his first guitar lessons and subsequently pursued formal music studies and graduated with a B.Mus with High Honours. He has studied with David Liebman, Vic Juris, Denis Chang, Jesse Stewart, Roddy Ellias, Mark Ferguson, and Tim Bedner among others.
“Justin Duhaime approached me for some guitar lessons in 2017. I loved his musicianship immediately: plenty of great ideas, well played, and a clearly abundant work ethic. I’ve taught guitarists all over Canada and haven’t heard any more promising than Justin.” – Mike Rud (Juno award winning musician)
“Justin took several classes with me […] his work was exceptional, consistently demonstrating a high level of creativity, musicianship, and originality. Even then, his work was of such high calibre that it did not seem like that of an undergraduate student, but rather the work of an innovative professional musician.” – Jesse Stewart (Juno award winning musician and professor)