Dunja Jennings Marcum is an adjunct clarinet instructor at Portland State University and maintains a successful studio in SE Portland that consists of students throughout the Metro area. She has been an active performer and educator in Portland for over 25 years. Dunja is also the Music Director for Vibe of Portland, a non-profit seeking to provide equal access to music and arts education for all of Portland Public School children. She also leads a First Year Learning Community at Warner Pacific University, an innovative program that is dedicated to the academic and personal success of freshmen students entering the university.
Many of her students are in the Portland Youth Philharmonic organization, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, and her students often place well in the Oregon State Solo Competitions and District Festivals. Her studio ranges in age from 9 years through graduate school. She is also in demand as a clarinet specialist for some of the top high school band programs in the state, and began teaching at the Woodwinds at Wallowa Lake camp in 2018.
Ms. Jennings Marcum received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Clarinet Performance from the University of Oregon where she was a student of Dr. Wayne Bennett. In addition she has received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Lewis and Clark College; Dunja has been a student of Yehuda Gilad and the late Rosario Mazzeo. Dunja is often called to substitute in the Oregon Symphony, performs in the Portland Summerfest Orchestra and the Astoria Music Festival with Keith Clark, but her true love is chamber music.
A lifelong athlete, Dunja is a certified personal trainer, and implements body awareness and strength and mobility work to ensure students are physically able to practice and perform with minimal strain and tension. Through her experiences with overuse injuries and healing from them, she is dedicated to keeping her students in peak performance shape.