Tish Oney's Music Blog

As I put the month of November away, I am glad to see some promising things and experiences on the horizon... December will bring an always-welcome opportunity to return to the gorgeous island of Oahu to enjoy Christmas Eve singing at the First Baptist Church of Honolulu! In February I will perform my inaugural jazz concert at the Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg, SC with the wonderful commercial music faculty from University of South Carolina Upstate, of which I am now a proud member. I'll return to that stage with my Peggy Lee Project in April, following a soprano soloist appearance in Schubert's Mass in G at the USC Upstate Performing Arts Center. June will bring more touring, this time in Nashua, NH, among other places, and the summer promises some new recording possibilities. Reviewing the year enables a working artist to reconnect with her goals and aspirations, revisit her career priorities and solidify yet-unmade plans to keep moving forward. Life can and w...

...is usually the title of my solo touring show when I spend the evening alone on a stage behind a piano (most of the time) singing and playing. My upcoming concert on September 11 will be a bit different... instead of going solo I will be joined by four wonderful musicians--Dr. Gregg Akkerman at the piano, Adam Knight on guitar, Shannon Hoover on bass and Tony Christopher on drums. We have set out to give the University of South Carolina Upstate community a taste of my various touring shows--there will be selections from "Jazz Seasons," my NYC cabaret show performed at both the Metropolitan Room (twice) and the Triad Theatre in Manhattan, "The Peggy Lee Project," performed nationwide at performing arts centers, regional theatres, jazz festivals and university concert series, and "Sweet Youth," my latest critically-acclaimed CD of originals and a few standards. We'll be trying different permutations of the band which will be fun... I'll be doing...

Balancing a successful performing career with teaching can be a challenge and a delight at the same time. I am very excited to accept an offer to be the new Assistant Professor of Commercial Music at the University of South Carolina Upstate. One refreshing element of this faculty appointment is that my touring performance career remains important to the university and to our department in that we aim to train commercial musicians who are competitive in today's music business. Helping to build necessary skills for these students requires teachers that are true artists out in the real world providing real music for real audiences... Since the university has given me its blessing in continuing to pursue my international recording and performance schedule (much like the role of violinist Midori Goto at my alma mater, University of Southern California), I am thoroughly stoked to begin this work alongside my creative work. There are scores of professionally touring jazz and classica...