About Tish

Tish loves working with her piano and vocal students but her happiest moments are when she is composing and arranging music. Every year she composes a theme song for her student Spring Show. There is never a dull moment with Tish and she always has something in the works. Visit this site often to catch a glimpse of what's new and upcoming.

Tish has over three decades of teaching experience and her annual Spring Show with her students is not a typical recital. It is held at a theater and Tish, as well as the students wear costumes for the presentation. In addition to the piano and vocal performances there are skits to add an element of surprise and diversity.

Tish recalls her first public performance playing the piano at age ten as a participant in her school's annual spring event. Instead of taking a bow at the end of her song, she walked off the stage with her index finger in her mouth. She now coaches and rehearses each of her students on stage presence.

Tish was born in her grandmother's home at Bowerston, Ohio, February 19, 1950 and though she is more than half a century old she is as active a twenty-seven year old and has the ambition of ten people. She says "You can't call me old until I am one hundred."

As a child she grew-up in Scio, Ohio, a small community in Harrison County, Ohio. She began playing the piano at age nine. At the time, she had a choice of taking piano or ballet lessons. Her parents could not afford both. Tish chose piano, and looking back on it, she has no regrets. She states, "It is a gift that I will keep for my entire life... a gift that I can share with others."

Tish has always been very creative. As a child she wrote stage plays and each year she would produce a "Summer Playhouse" recruiting all the kids in the neighborhood to perform with her. She directed each of her friends...giving them suggestions about on-stage movements and expressions. Once the play was polished, she would then charge all the parents a nickel to see the show and to cover refreshments. The family parlor had an adjoining room that was divided with draperies. How perfect for a stage setting! And a stage it was!

One of Tish's favorite childhood hobbies was to make paper dresses with her mother's freezer paper. As an adult she has made dozens of costumes for herself, her children, and her students.

Another pass-time for Tish was to draw neighborhoods with lush foliage and many, many trees. Tish loves trees! As an adult she recycles as much as she possibly can and uses very few paper towels. She purchased several dozen cheap wash cloths and she applies them as a one-time use kitchen wipe. She then hangs them on a drying rack in her laundry room to be washed for re-use.

Her youth drawings of neighborhoods has expanded into architectural structures. She hopes to one day obtain ownership of a theater that she has designed.

Piano is not the only instrument that Tish plays. She began playing the clarinet in the fourth grade. She not only played the clarinet in the band, but also was a member of a clarinet quartet. She played her clarinet on the recording of the song "You Give Me Love" from her "Simply Soothing" CD.

She also played baritone saxophone in concert band and as a member of the high school dance band. She played her alto saxophone on the recording of "It Ain't Enough" from her "Simply Soothing" CD. She co-wrote this song with her good friend, Dennis Wilson. Dennis brain-stormed the concept and lyrics for the song and Tish did the composing.

High school was quite musically busy for Tish with the clarinet quartet, the dance band, and the choir. She not only sang in the choir she also accompanied it.

Her devotion to the band won her the John Phillips Sousa Award which is bestowed upon the person who contributes the most to the band.

She was the head majorette in the marching band her senior year of high school. When she graduated she did not want to give-up baton twirling, so she organized and taught her own drill team of baton twirlers, flag twirlers, and rifle twirlers. She made sixty of the costumes for "The Stars and Stripes"who marched in Uncle Sam outfits and Colonial Soldier attire. She also arranged the music for the flute and bell lyre players. Her drummers were fabulous and did not need her assistance in arranging the march cadences. The group won over sixty trophies plus other awards in seven years of parades and competitions.

In high school, Tish practiced three hours per day on the piano. She is grateful to her sisters for putting up with her one and one half hours of six o'clock morning practice before school each day.

For eleven years Tish studied classical piano with several teachers, all of whom were men. Tish says that each gave her a bit of something that the others didn't. This made her studies with each special and unique.

The majority of the years of her piano studies were with Robert McCleaster who was also her band director.  Tish attributes her foundation and love for music to him.  Mr. McCleaster was an excellent technician, always making sure that Tish paid attention to all of the details as well as mastering all of the rhythms of the piece that she was learning.   He truly gave her the gift of music and a lifelong career!

Professor Schnitker at Muskingum College in Ohio required that of her daily six hours of practice, she devote thirty minutes to the development of her photographic memory. She says that it has been invaluable in many other areas of her life besides assisting her in the memorization of music.

Professor Bales at West Liberty University in West Liberty, West Virginia, helped her to realize that she did not wish to become a classical concert pianist. He required that she practice eight to ten hours daily. After a year of that, she decided that playing the piano had become a job and that it was no longer fun.

At that moment, she converted to contemporary music and put together an eight hour memorized repertoire of popular and standard songs for performance at hotels, restaurants, piano bars, and resorts. She has done the traveling thing and has many stories to tell. She has been in the same room with celebrities or had near misses with them.

Once while playing at the Walthall Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, a Russian gentleman, who was a member of Mikhail Baryshnikov's party, placed a tip in her jar and commented, "You are a dream weaver". Tish says that it was the nicest compliment she had ever received. Thus, the name of this site and her slogan, "Tish Your Weaver Of Dreams."

After twenty-five years of entertaining audiences at hotels, restaurants, resorts, clubs and piano bars, Tish has retired from the perpetual performance schedule. She is quite content to just perform with her students in the annual Spring Show and at the three community services performances per year.

She stays quite busy with the students and building stage sets. She has more tools than most of her men friends.

Of course composing is her number one joy...but let's not forget her hobbies of gardening, foreign language, and exercise. She plans to dance at her one hundred fifth birthday party.

She proclaims, "I have only just begun!" Meaning...she has a journal full of ideas to keep her busy for at least the next fifty years!