music Archives - Inspiring Portfolio Careers

Juliet Russell is a singer, composer, vocal coach and choir director. She is also a creative director of Also festival and co-founder of Salon London, alongside Helen Bagnall. Passionate about supporting individuals and communities to develop their voices and creativity, Juliet is also the vocal coach on two of the UK’s biggest entertainment shows, ITV’s The Voice and BBC1’s Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, where she prepares the Unexpected Stars for the performance of their lives. Specialising in artist development, Juliet has also worked with Grammy, BRiT, MTV Europe and MOBO award winning artists. She has performed with innovative artists including Damon Albarn, Imogen Heap, alt-J and Paloma Faith, most recently writing the vocal arrangement and leading the #ThankYouMidwife choir on Paloma’s beautiful rendition of Silent Night, in association with Pampers UK. Juliet has composed and arranged music for film, television and radio. She leads the Portobello Live Choir, a community choir in West London and Assemble professional choir. http://www.julietrussell.com

What are the components of your portfolio career e.g. study, paid freelance work, part time job, volunteering etc.?

At the moment my portfolio consists of my private practice; I have a vocal studio in west London, freelance television work, composing, arranging choral music and co-curating the Also festival and Salon London. I host events and give talks. I recently launched my first online singing course with Music Gurus and I give masterclasses all over the country at festivals, for businesses, choirs, colleges and industry events. I sing in a trio with a guitarist and a philosopher. I’m the creative director of Assemble, a contemporary professional choir and Portobello Live Choir, a community choir which is free for local people. I am a national trainer for the British Lung Foundation’s Singing for Lung Health programme and I’m also studying for a research-based MA in vocal pedagogy.

How did your portfolio career come about?

I think the creative industries have had a portfolio model for a long time and it’s something I have always done. When I was young I used part-time jobs as a way of funding my creative aspirations and I did everything from working on the door of a club to making clothes then started promoting bands and events. I’ve always had a spirit of entrepreneurism; I started my first business when I was 25 and have worked since I was 14, babysitting and child minding. I even sold underwear on a local market stall, which lasted two weeks!

How has your portfolio career changed over time?

It has got better! I used to hustle a lot more – approaching people for work and building lots of projects from scratch. I still do the latter, but now a lot more opportunities also come to me. That is something that has definitely grown over time.

When people ask you ‘what do you do?’ – what do you reply?

I usually say I’m a singer and vocal coach. Being a singer completely informs how I coach. I think of myself more as a Creative Director though. I love to create music and projects and to see them come to life – I’ve worked with 5,000 children, young people and their teachers and families on a project called Sing Up Greenwich and 100+ singers at Sing Late at the V&A and I love big participation projects that connect people to music and each other.

What 5 tips can you share for people considering a portfolio career?

1. Follow your passion and it will never feel boring

2. People and relationships are your greatest asset

3. Learn to be excellent at what you do

4. Understand your finances and your value

5. Give back. Be aware of what’s needed and what you can bring.

More

Juliet Russell’s LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliet-russell-b37739a/

Also Festival https://www.also-festival.com\

Salon London http://www.salon-london.com

Music Gurus https://www.musicgurus.com/course/learn-essential-skills-for-singers-foundation-level

Follow Juliet on Twitter @JulietRussell

Interested in a portfolio career for yourself?

Get in touch for a no obligation chat with Rachel Brushfield, The Talent Liberator https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Read our client testimonials for the different parts of our portfolio career https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

This is part 2 of a 2 part blog by one of our clients – Jonathan Green. We coached Jon to create his second career – a portfolio career. The rest of this blog is in Jon’s own words.

To read the first part, please click on this link:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/portfolio-careerist-jonathan-green/

Time out for reflection

In 2010 I had a year-long sabbatical, six months of which were spent in the Outer Hebrides where I spent time writing my first book and working on songs in my recording studio. We then moved back to the mainland to have our second child. By this time I was growing as a recording artist and author but we also needed to get a regular income as publishing wasn’t paying yet – partly because I gave my music away for free! Looking back now, I don’t think that I valued my craft enough and that was something I had to confront and work through.

New beginnings – my portfolio career

I found a job working for the Methodist Church nationally to develop chaplaincy, a role that required someone who could start things from scratch. The role involved me speaking, travelling, writing a lot of material, including a course which has been published and used all over the world. The job also required us to move twice. However, in the midst of the demands of that role I managed to set clear boundaries around the time that I gave to the work, a discipline that coaching helped to develop in me. This allowed me to continue to record and release music and write. I was feeling really good about the balance between my church work, music and writing – everything was finding space, including my family, by this point my wife and I had three children under the age of five.

Career crossroads

Eventually, last summer I was made redundant, the Chaplaincy Development Project finally ran out of money. On the one hand, being made redundant was hard, because there was still so much work to do. However, on the other hand it was tremendously liberating. I felt like I had been given the gift of space and I really believed that I shouldn’t rush to find a new job. I realised that this was the perfect opportunity to jump with both feet into a portfolio style of work. My wife was offered a great job which meant that I didn’t have to find a full time paid job. I was approached by a national organisation to develop something from scratch… it was for two days a week, was home based and time limited. PERFECT! For me this was also a profound personal statement – for the first time in my life I can genuinely say that I write music for most of the time and work for the church part time. I have given myself permission to not make “working for the church” the main thing – and you know what? The world hasn’t stopped turning!

Money from music

My wife said to me recently, that if I treat music like a business then it will pay like a business. So that is what I have done. I released my first commercial single in January 2015 and I am currently working on an EP scheduled for the summer. I also have two albums in development for 2016. It has taken me eight years to get to this point, but I feel that the songwriter in me has been truly liberated and more importantly, I feel like I am being true to myself.
I am super excited about arriving at this point in my journey. So much of the thinking and insights about who I truly am: my values, priorities and vision for my life stems from the coaching I received all those years ago. I also picked up and learnt to work with a number of tools that helped me get here! Coaching has been so valuable and was worth every penny and I apply the insights to everything I do.

You can listen to lots of my music over at www.soundcloud.com/recreativemedia for free and you can buy my first Single – Rest in My Love from every online store and streaming service in the world! I live on Twitter @recre8ivemedia

Juliet Russell’s guest blog about her portfolio part 1

Portfolio careerist – Jonathan Green #2