Dr Jennie Joy Porton

• PhD in Music, Royal Holloway University of London
• MMus (Distinction) – Joint Principal Study clarinet and saxophone, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
• BMus (Hons) – Joint Principal Study clarinet and saxophone, Royal College of Music

Jennie is an active performer, lecturer and researcher. Hailing from inner-city Cardiff, she attended the Royal College of Music a year early aged 17 on the very rarely awarded Joint Principal Study pathway for clarinet and saxophone.

She spent a semester studying clarinet at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with Alois Brandhofer, and received intensive saxophone training in New York from Dr Paul Cohen of the Manhattan School of Music.

With support from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Universal Music UK Sound Foundation (formerly the EMI Sound Foundation), Elizabeth Evans Trust and the Arts Council of Wales, Jennie completed a MMus at RWCMD, also on Joint Principal Study clarinet and saxophone pathway, earning the award for the highest postgraduate recital mark.

Jennie has a PhD from Royal Holloway University, undertaken with a scholarship award, which explores alumni perspectives of conservatoire practices across three decades of attendance. The research focuses on class, power and identity, via a focus on the themes of notions of talent, curriculum, and health and wellbeing.

With a keen interest in access and inclusion, Jennie was research consultant for the CUK Junior Conservatoire Widening Access and Participation research project, resulting in a final report for CUK Board of Directors with sector-wide recommendations (2022).

Jennie was part of the Sustainability and Impacts team for the Arts Council of Wales-funded GALWAD project (2022). Culminating in a live TV production on Sky Arts, this was a multi-faceted collaborative project with innovative approaches to sustainable initiatives as a core pillar and commitment; Jennie was responsible for data handling relating to sustainable development and accompanying mitigation strategies, and workforce wellbeing, and is trained in industry-level carbon emission data collection programmes (TRACE, BAFTA Albert, Theatre Green Book, Julie’s Bicycle). Building on the data outcomes of this project, Jennie and GALWAD colleague Ruth Springer collaborated on research benchmarking carbon emissions of RWCMD productions (2024).

Jennie is currently collaborating on research with RWCMD colleague Professor Helena Gaunt and Dr James Lea on the topic of conservatoires, thresholds and residencies.

She is a qualified therapist and is keen to build on her doctoral findings on wellbeing in the conservatoire context, with further research into the field of health and wellbeing and the arts. 

As a freelance performer, Jennie enjoys a varied career. Recent highlights include Matthew Bourne’s world premiere production of Romeo and Juliet, with a residency in Sadler’s Wells, live performance screening in cinemas across the UK and UK tour. She was also first clarinet (job share) for their production of Nutcracker! in London. Jennie has a longstanding freelance relationship with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Welsh National Opera, frequently working with them for concerts, televised productions, UK and worldwide tours, performing on clarinet and saxophones.

In musical theatre, Jennie was chair holder on Miss Saigon (Cameron Mackintosh, UK and Ireland tour) and The Show Must Go On (Dominion Theatre, London) and has deputised on a host of shows in the West End and across the UK including Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Cats, Half a Sixpence and Billy Elliot. Jennie also performed on the UK leg of Idina Menzel’s world tour at venues including Wembley Arena. Other highlights include commercial performances with highly acclaimed NYC disco group Escort (European tour legs).

Jennie teaches saxophone and clarinet/saxophone doubling at RWCMD, as well as lecturing academically on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, predominantly those with industry and socio-cultural focus.

She co-ordinates the musical-theatre focused woodwind multi-instrument pathway, and is additionally study abroad tutor for international exchange students. Outside of RWCMD, for many years Jennie was the saxophone tutor at Cardiff University’s School of Music, and has also worked in a teaching and coaching capacity at the New York Summer Music Festival.

Jennie is keen to hear from prospective doctoral research students interested in socio-cultural issues in relation to music and also the arts more broadly, across the spectrum from education to professional fields.

Other areas of supervisory interest include:

• power and identity
• conservatoire training
• health and wellbeing in music and the arts
• sustainability in the arts.

Guest lectures

• By invitation, Jennie has guest lectured at Royal Holloway University and Iceland University of the Arts.

Book chapters

• Porton, J.J. (2023) ‘Social Inclusion in Contemporary British Conservatoires: Alumni Perspectives’ in Bull, A., Scharff, C. and Nooshin, L. (eds.) Voices for Change in the Classical Music Profession. Oxford: Oxford University Press