We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Helena Summerfield a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Helena, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I found my purpose by finding a project that resonated with me – Jazz North’s ‘Jazz Camp for Girls’ – one that I felt passionate about and one where going to work didn’t really seem like going to work.
Growing up I had lost count of the number of times that I was told I was “good for a girl” or that I did not “sound like a girl” when I played my saxophone. It was normal for me to be the only girl in the school jazz band or at least to be the only girl who did not mind having a go at playing improvised solos. My role model growing up was the saxophonist Barbara Thompson. My mum took me to hear her play when I was around 12 years old and she literally blew me away. At that time I was not aware of any other female jazz musicians and this realisation has made me appreciate the importance of role models – you need to see it to want to be it!
Working on Jazz North’s ‘Jazz Camp for Girls’ has given me the opportunity to encourage a new generation of young female identifying musicians from across the North of England to engage with jazz and improvisation. To this end I have created a resource pack and camp handbook filled with interviews and photographs of talented female jazz musicians to show that there are amazing women working in the world of jazz today.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I cannot imagine my life without music, it has always been a big part of my identity and I feel truly blessed that I have been able to turn this love into a career.
My mum recognised my interest in music at an early age – apparently I would ask her to play me Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony – and, as is the case with many young children, started my musical journey by learning to play the recorder. When I was around 9 years old I moved on to the saxophone – inspired by my dad’s love of Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals – and as a teenager I also learned to play the flute, clarinet and piano. After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1997, I studied for a PGCE in secondary music and have been working in music education for the past 25 years in a variety of mainstream and inclusive settings.
In 2018 I heard about ‘Jazz Camp for Girls’ – a successful Danish initiative developed by Jazz Danmark and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival to introduce young female musicians to improvisation. I felt like punching the air – yes! – this was amazing but I also felt full of questions – “Why hadn’t this initiative existed when I was growing up?” and “Why wasn’t there an equivalent initiative currently in the UK?” Luckily Jazz North – the strategic development agency for jazz in the North of England – were feeling equally inspired by the project and, with the blessing of Jazz Denmark, applied for funding to pilot ‘Jazz Camp for Girls’ in the UK. I successfully applied for the role of project manager and since 2019 this has become my mission – to give young female musicians the opportunity to experience jazz and improvisation in a supportive environment and to introduce them to inspiring role models working in the jazz industry.
You can read about the project via this link https://www.jazznorth.org/jazz-camp-for-girls
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
When I was at music college one tutor said to me “You’re just like me, you’re a tortoise. You mustn’t let the hares get to you”. Now, at the time, I must admit, I was really offended by his words. At music college it was very competitive and we were all supposed to be hares – the fastest, highest, loudest – but not everyone is designed to be like that and I certainly wasn’t. The same tutor also told me that I could become equally accomplished on the saxophone, flute and clarinet. Again, I did not want to hear that as I had applied to music college as a saxophonist and, to be honest, played flute and clarinet a bit under sufferance. However, over the years I have come to particularly love playing the flute and am often booked on gigs because I a competent ‘doubler’.
So, I guess my advice here is that it’s not a bad thing to be a tortoise, to take your time and to go at your own pace. Society and social media are so preoccupied with youth they can makes you feel like a failure if you haven’t achieved certain milestones by a certain age. There are so many celebrated lists of successful people aged under 30 or under 40 and whilst that is to be admired, it’s not the only way to do things. A career goal achieved later in life is no less worthy than one achieved almost straight away, in fact you have probably had a more interesting journey getting there with more time to find your purpose, to experiment and overcome obstacles becoming more resilient and driven in the process.
It took me 23 years of working in music education before I was recognised – in 2021 I was awarded the ‘Will Michael Jazz Education award’ with Trafford Music Service and in 2022 I became ‘Jazz Educator of the Year’ at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards for project managing Jazz North’s ‘Jazz Camp for Girls’. Receiving these awards well into my 40s was honestly the best feeling ever!
The three qualities that I would say have been most impactful on my journey are being organised, flexible and embracing my inner tortoise!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
My role at Jazz North also involves project managing ‘The Playlist Project – Milestones’. You can read more about it here https://www.jazznorth.org/playlist-project and we are currently looking for more schools (especially based in the North of England) to get involved.
I am also in the process of creating a range of educational resources to encourage more young musicians (and their teachers) to engage with jazz and improvisation. I am therefore keen to make more connections with jazz educators and music teachers (especially based in the North of England) who might like to trial these.
You can email me at [email protected]
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jazznorth.org
- Instagram: @helenajsummerfieldmusician
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jazzcampforgirls/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/VVHe7BzEZ1Y
- Other: The You Tube link is for the song ‘She wasn’t bad for a girl’ that I composed for the ‘Jazz Camp for Girls’ project.
Image Credits
Phil Portus Manchester Jazz Festival
