Tish Oney's Music Blog

I love working with exemplary musicians. There is nothing like good collaboration to inspire me to reach new artistic heights! Last week I had the privilege of working with my baroque trio (soprano, flute and organ, featuring Dr. Rik Noyce on flute and Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ Conservator Philip Smith on organ) in the opening concert for the fourth annual Redondo Beach Baroque Festival. Collaboration in the baroque style (as well as in jazz) involves trusting one's fellow musicians and embarking on a journey together during which ideas meld and mesh, folding over one another and layering into a fabric of aural experience that is unique upon each successive performance. This we call being "in the moment" or "in the zone." Listening and responding to the other two performers becomes a delightful dance in real time involving improvisation, rebalancing and adjustment as each part finds its way among the others in expressive freedom. Three intertwining lin...

Next on my calendar of performance dates will be a baroque recital of soprano arias composed by J.S. Bach. This concert will be offered as part of the Riviera United Methodist Church Baroque Festival on Friday, February 24 at 7:30 pm at Riviera UMC in Redondo Beach, CA. The performance features the wonderful Dr. Rik Noyce on flute and Philip A. Smith on a newly refurbished organ. Entitled "A Lenten Journey With J.S. Bach" my trio will guide the audience through the Bible stories of Holy Week as exemplified through the incomparable music of a baroque master composer. Come and join us for a contemplative and beautiful journey of faith and love, pain and redemption.

I love being what some refer to as a "crossover artist." All it really means is that you are good at more than one thing: you excel as a singer in multiple genres. Being one such type of performer gives me the opportunity to stretch different vocal mechanism muscles (really!), hone my precision and technique, challenge myself musically and intellectually, and keep from being bored singing in one style. The main thing I keep in mind is that I strive to be an expert in whatever style I'm singing, rather than dwelling on the "C" word ("crossover"). I sing "classical" or "legit" soprano repertoire (baroque and contemporary art music mostly, but also classic and romantic period material in 6 languages) from the standpoint of being a specialist in those genres rather than as a jazz singer dabbling in crossover. Likewise, I sing jazz from the perspective of a specialist in that genre, calling to mind the greats who have gone before m...