Spend an intelligent evening with Tesh

• By LISA TRAMONTANA
• Advocate News Features staff
• Published: Jun 12, 2009

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It’s impossible to put John Tesh into any kind of category, but it’s clear that he’s a man with a mission. A mission to use his music and his words to uplift, inspire, encourage and help others.

Tesh will perform his award-winning music tonight (Friday, June 12) at the Baton Rouge River Center. The concert will feature not just music, but laughter, special lighting effects, romantic and spiritual elements, and plenty of inspiration from his popular radio show Intelligence For Your Life.

 As Tesh says more than once during our interview … “If it’s not helpful, if it doesn’t build you up in some way, you won’t hear it on our show. I don’t want to say or play anything that’s not encouraging.”

And that must be the guiding  force behind the original pieces Tesh composes ... hard-driving, energetic songs that  deliver themes of victory and hope, and heart-tugging ballads that reflect love and romance. Though many have called his music “new age,” Tesh describes it as “somewhere between neo-classical and progressive rock.”

Tesh’s piano skills combined with an orchestral background  bring his music to life. His  Alive - Music and Dance show incorporates strings, ballet, lyrical dancers, and even hip-hop performers. His shows are always evolving. “Fear of risk holds people back,” he said.   “But you have to be willing to change. You have to take bold steps to make things happen.”

He knows because he had to make it happen for himself.

“I’m the poster boy for the idea of quitting your job and following your dream,” Tesh  said. “I believe we all have a passion in our hearts. It’s there in your DNA and you have to figure it out and find that thing for which you were made.”

For Tesh, it was clearly music, and in the last five years, his radio show, which has become a ministry in itself.

Though he was pushed to study chemistry and physics in college, it didn’t make him happy, Tesh said. A friend encouraged him to take a radio class, and from there, Tesh built a career in broadcasting that eventually including investigative reporting, sports announcing, and a 10-year stint as co-host of Entertainment Tonight.

But even at the height of his success, he wasn’t fulfilled. “It’s really not about how much money you make or how famous you can be,” he said. “I finally realized that.”

His music kept calling … so he listened … and changed his life. In 1995, Tesh found the recognition he deserved. It came thanks to Live at Red Rocks, a PBS special that was filmed as an album and became a gold record as Tesh’s solo debut. Today, Tesh has established himself as a charming, likeable performer always looking for new ways to appeal to his audience. He has sold 7 million albums and has received two Grammy nominations, according to Tesh Media.

For more information on Tesh, go to http://www.tesh.com. For tickets to tonight’s concert, go to the BRCC box office or call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.