Jenna Countryman

Jenna Countryman, a Bay Area native, has been playing the flute since the age of nine. She first picked up the instrument at the instigation of her father, who has and will always love Jethro Tull. After her first experience in an orchestra at age twelve, she knew that she wanted to be a musician.

Since then, Ms. Countryman has performed in many ensembles, recitals, and competitions. Most notably, she won the Berkeley Youth Orchestra’s concerto competition in 2000 with Glinka’s Concertino for Flute, and the Jacksonville Youth Orchestra’s concerto competition in 2004, playing Charles Griffes’s Poem with the Jacksonville Symphony at the age of eighteen. More recently, she won second place in San Francisco State University’s piano duo competition, performing Prokofiev’s Sonata and Schubert’s Variations on Trockne Blumen with pianist Ulysses Loken. Her past teachers include Kathy Meyer, Patrice Hambelton, and Rhonda Cassano.

Ms. Countryman attended Florida State University, where she studied flute with professor Eva Amsler. Among other things, Ms. Amsler taught Jenna that learning is a constant and individual process that, in music, is most rewarded by hard work, thoughtful practice, and emotional awareness. After graduating cum laude with her Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance, Ms. Countryman returned to the Bay Area and attended San Francisco State University, studying with Linda Lukas of the San Francisco Symphony. She has completed all of her coursework there and will receive her master’s degree, also in flute performance, in the near future.

Jenna often takes freelance gigs with friends, family, and acquaintances in the area, ranging from pit orchestras to weddings, and is currently performing with Symphony Parnassus. Apart from flute, Jenna enjoys singing and plays a little guitar and piano. Her training has focused on orchestral and contemporary music, as well as pedagogy, but she is also capable in jazz and Latin music, and loves all things indie.