To help her husband make a go of his career in opera, Powell River’s Jessica Bowes-Lavoie had to become a bit creative.
Although Bowes-Lavoie got her start as a top performing vocal soloist in Powell River, and has performed with the Vancouver Symphony orchestra herself, she has taken to the business world since moving to Paris, France, last October.
“The news that I am now working in marketing instead of singing might come as a shock to the people of Powell River,” said Bowes-Lavoie. “But over the years I’ve realized there’s a side of me that is hungry to work in the business world.”
Bowes-Lavoie said living in Paris allows her to keep her family, including sons Maxime, 8, and Benjamin, 5, close while husband Tomislav Lavoie, originally from Montreal, pursues a career in Europe as a bass-baritone singer.
“We moved to Paris for Tomi’s career,” she said. “Now if he’s in Austria or Ireland I can take the boys to visit and stay on budget.”
Now working as representative in charge of label.m, the official hair product of London Fashion Week, Bowes-Lavoie said she has a lot of opportunities in her new line of work.
“There are divas in opera and hairdressing, for sure,” she said. “I suppose I like the drama of both.”
According to the mezzo-soprano, she takes a huge amount of inspiration from her grandmother and opera singer Margaret (Bowes) Ferguson who died last year, as well as all the people in Powell River who helped her develop her singing voice
“I really draw on my experiences in Powell River to make my way in business,” said Bowes-Lavoie. “My background as an opera singer really helps me open doors and be confident.”
With experience in Powell River as a figure skater, Bowes-Lavoie also has her boys involved in hockey, in addition to teaching junior skating lessons herself.
“Like true Canadians in Paris we found a hockey team,” she laughed. “The team is actually called the Français Volants, which means flying Frenchmen.”
In addition to sports, Bowes-Lavoie hopes to have her boys enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris to pursue music next year, although she would warn them from banking on a career in opera.
“They both have such sweet singing voices,” she said, “although if one of them told me they wanted to be an opera singer I would ask them if they wanted to do anything else.”
