The Musicking Community

Episode 10: The Portfolio Career – You Do You

Are you a musician running on the hamster wheel of a musical career, exhausting yourself by continually seeking approval from the gatekeepers of traditional pathways, never knowing exactly what the committee is looking for? Or are you stuck in low-paying gigs or teaching situations? On today’s episode, I speak with Jennet Ingle, oboist, teacher, coach, and author of The Happiest Musician. She talks about her book which can help you create a Portfolio Career that is right for you, based on your values, your time, your skill, and your needs. Right where you are, in your own community.

Topics in this episode include:

• Defining success (what we were taught vs. what really works for us)
• Maybe there’s no ONE job that does it ALL!
• Everyone needs money
• Finding creative fulfillment
• Defining a Portfolio Career
• Auditions are a crapshoot
• No more groveling before gatekeepers
• No need to ask for permission
• Taking agency for our own careers and life
• How a Portfolio Career helped Jennet weather the pandemic
• You can choose the balance of your career
• Design programs that work for you
• Making a sustainable career that will last long-term
• Identifying what you need to thrive
• Caring for mind, body, and spirit

Jennet Ingle is principal oboist with the South Bend Symphony, and an active recitalist, concerto soloist, and freelance performer. Her lifelong interest in new music led to a recent commissioning project – Dreams and Visions (Searching the Shadows) by Marjorie Rusche is a triptych based on cards from the Tarot deck. In March 2007, she was honored to perform the world premiere of Doug Lofstrom’s Oboe Concertino, a work commissioned for her by the New Philharmonic Orchestra and the College of DuPage.

As the owner and operator of Jennet Ingle Reeds, she makes and sells over two hundred handmade reeds every month to oboists all over the world and has helped hundreds of people with their own reed-making through her video channel, The Five Minute Reedmaker, her weekly online Reed Club and annual live Oboe Reed Boot Camps.  

Jennet has recently focused on building community for adult oboists. Her signature group program, the Invincible Oboist, demystifies instrumental skills and helps oboists to get past the struggle to find ease in their playing.  

Her 2022 book, The Happiest Musician, encourages creatives to take agency in their lives and careers and not wait to be chosen.

You can reach Jennet through the following:

• Website: jennetingle.com
• Blog: proneoboe.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/jennetingleoboist
• YouTube: youtube.com/jennetingle
• Phone: (773) 450-4581
• Purchase her book: The Happiest Musician

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