Tanya Cornish has returned to the classroom in a tiny South Australian town, after competing in the grand final of Toyota Star Maker last month.
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Cornish teaches at Coomandook Area School, which is a small school in eastern South Australia, and it is a career she balances with her music aspirations.
The first song she performed at the Star Maker grand final, I’m Coming Home, was written by Cornish and Jason Kearney last year during a songwriting retreat at The DAG Sheep Station
“We wrote it about coming home,” Miss Cornish said. “Being a musician, you’re always on the road and there’s nothing like coming back home.”
On weekends, Miss Cornish does just that, spending her time on the road to play gigs in the city.
“I have an agent who books me my gigs in Adelaide, so during the week I’m a school teacher, and every weekend I do the hour and a half drive to Adelaide, I do one or two gigs and then drive back for the school week,” she said.
“It’s exhausting at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way - well I would if I could do music - but I think it’s good to have that balance for now and be able to do my music as well, because I wouldn’t give that up.”
Miss Cornish grew up not far from where she now works, in Tintinara on her family’s beef cattle property, where her parents still live.
“I went to Adelaide for my last three years of school and university and then I came back because I got a teaching job, so it’s nice to be back home and close to the farm. I’m definitely a country girl at heart,” Miss Cornish said.
The 24-year-old started playing gigs professionally when she was 18, and it has brought her some success in the years since.
It’s exhausting at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
- Tanya Cornish
In 2015 Miss Cornish travelled to Norfolk Island, where she won the Trans-Tasman Entertainer of The Year, then in 2016, she was a graduate of the 2016 CMAA Academy of Country Music and later released her debut EP, before making the Star Maker grand final.
And the year 3/4 teacher has been keen to bring music into school.
“I sing in the classroom sometimes and bring in my guitar and now some of them want to learn guitar, so I’m hoping I can run some guitar lessons this year, and I would love for them to follow in my footsteps, or at least play some music,” Miss Cornish said.
While the school children were on holidays when the Tamworth Country Music Festival was on, Miss Cornish said plenty of the parents like her professional Facebook page, which promotes her music, and she received a lot of support.
“The children sent through messages from their parents’ Facebook pages, saying ‘good luck Miss Cornish’ and ‘you’re still a star at school’, it’s really sweet,” she said.
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