Jennifer Barlament and Ken Potsic are pillars of Atlanta’s musical scene.
As 1996 graduate students at The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Jennifer Barlament and Ken Potsic struck up a conversation on a busy street corner. Because they already knew of each other, having both played in ensembles at the Eastman Opera Theatre, Barlament invited Potsic to join her group trip with friends to a state park.
Thirty years later, the married couple lives in Atlanta’s Druid Hills. Barlament is executive director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Potsic is a national bassoon specialist. The pair says Atlanta is in the midst of an artistic renaissance, one they’re proud to be part of, and they enjoy giving back to the community personally and professionally.
They spoke to Simply Buckhead about their lives in music.
How did music shape your early lives?
JB: My mother’s family sang in choruses; my grandmother was a classical fan. We lived in Germany where I took recorder lessons. In fourth grade, we moved to Hinesville, Georgia, and I picked the clarinet to play since it looked similar to the recorder. I also began playing the violin in middle school after our family inherited one.
KP: I’m from Elmhurst, a suburb of Chicago, and my dad played in a band and had a record collection of classical and jazz. As a child, I started recording his records and listening on the way to school. I was a real nerd. I started playing the oboe because my hands were small, but by fifth grade, I switched to the bassoon.
Talk a little bit about your daily work.
JB: My job is to ensure the ASO is moving forward, which means managing staff, making sure the orchestra is taken care of and building revenue. Some days my role is really granular; sometimes it’s more big picture. It’s very much a people business. And we have education programs centered around giving rich musical experiences to children; that’s another distinctive part.
KP: My formal training is as a performer, so every place we’ve lived, I’ve played gigs. But the main thing is now this bassoon repair business that is registered as Kenneth Potsic Woodwinds LLC. But there’s no internet presence. It’s all “Do you have Ken Potsic’s number?” If you do this kind of work, a prerequisite is that you play the bassoon. It’s hard to do what I do—tuning, voicing— without that.
What are your thoughts about the Atlanta arts scene?
JB: The arts scene has developed significantly. One of the things that attracted me to coming back was the orchestra becoming a more vibrant institution and creating new work. We’re the only major orchestra in the United States with a woman executive and woman conductor. It’s welcoming, diverse and inclusive, and I’d describe the whole arts scene that way.
KP: Most of my involvement is confined to the symphony and opera, and both have improved since we moved here in 2016. I see Atlanta not as treading water or declining like northern cities but being in its glory days. There’s a lot of energy and money and interest in building the arts here. And there’s a lot of optimism.
STORY: Denise K. James
