Portfolio career formation in Australia: Implications for higher music education

This article reports findings from a qualitative study undertaken to explore the career trajectories of Australian portfolio musicians including their interactions and engagement with formal, non-formal, and informal modes of music education. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 18 musicians, selected with a desire to represent musical, cultural, social, and gender diversity. The participants exhibited composite or “portfolio” careers, consisting of work across multiple domains. The investigation revealed that such career formation happens in an episodic rather than linear fashion, as opportunity and adversity lead to portfolio diversification. Ongoing theorisation of the data identified ways in which musicians’ portfolio diversification is enabled by knowledge and skill connections, and, by a keen awareness of intra- and inter-personal values, beliefs, and personal qualities. By observing the ways that musicians construct and then draw upon their epistemic and social foundations laid down both in and outside of formal education, higher music education providers may be able to better plan and enact meaningful curriculum reform for the future.