A native of Québec City, Canada, Guy Carmichael moved to Europe at the beginning of his career but later returned to Québec, where he played with the Montréal and Québec Symphony Orchestras and Les Violons du Roy and taught at the Québec Conservatoire and Université Laval for more than thirty years.
Guy studied with Hermann Baumann in the 1970s, then was principal horn in Essen for ten years. In the early 1980s, he founded the Brass Academy at the Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, a performing arts academy and festival in Saint-Irénée, Québec, where he was also the artistic director of the festival from 2004 to 2011. He has retired from teaching but still plays in various ensembles.
Guy was honored with the Punto Award at the 2023 IHS symposium in Montréal.