Tish Oney's Music Blog

 What inspires singers? Toward whom does a singer glance when searching for musical ideas? Where do singers travel to fill their wells with creativity? When do singers reach for outside inspiration and why do they turn where they turn? I am delighted to investigate some of these direct and rhetorical questions in a new podcast I will host on WGJC radio called "The Singer's Muse."  Singers from all genres and styles will be invited to contribute their thoughts as podcast guests. As we share our journeys, stories, and experiences, we will learn from one another and hold each other up at a time when singing in public requires considerable modification or postponement. Whether hailing from the opera house, jazz festival, Broadway stage, church choir, baroque ensemble, or pop music scene, singers from all walks of life and masters of many different styles of music will provide thought-provoking dialogue and encouragement for our fellow musicians yearning to heal the world with...

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.