As a little boy, Mike Oehmen ’11 would fall asleep to his mother playing piano. A classically trained performer, she used the evenings to practice. The next morning, Oehmen would try to plunk out what he could remember on the keys.
His ear got so good that by second grade his plunking was close enough to the original composition that his parents thought it was time for lessons.
In typical fashion for children, he didn’t really practice. Instead, he relied on that ear of his. It worked until his teacher stopped previewing the pieces for him and forced him to read music.
By middle school, he had transitioned to saxophone. He remembers his sixth-grade concert as a clear moment in his musical growth.
At that show, a small jazz ensemble comprised of the best players from all the schools in the area took the stage. As the solos passed between performers, one student started playing quietly. The conductor hushed the other instruments as the soloist’s music slowly rose from a shimmer to a roar. The ensemble, wrapped in that moment, reacted in syncopated rhythm. Everything was held together amid the flux.
It’s there that Oehmen heard his future. Jazz has helped him embrace the unknown from that day forward, through high school, his time at Lehigh, the recording of his album, the loss of his wife, and his musical rebirth.
Lehigh Time
By seventh grade, he was a member of that small jazz ensemble, where he met kids who became close friends because of their similar interests. He had solos and features in performances and earned state-level recognitions.
“All young adults can struggle with self-esteem and second guess themselves,” he says. “Jazz helped me discover my confidence.”
Despite his love for the form, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue it as a career. Because of that seed of uncertainty, he sought a college experience that combined an intensive music program with other opportunities.
During his senior year, he visited Lehigh. It was a cold and rainy weekend, not the moment to fall in love with a school. But the campus beauty struck him. Then he went to Zoellner and met music majors, including a rising senior who invited him to join his combo that played at campus award ceremonies and banquets … if Oehmen applied, was accepted, and enrolled.
He did just that.
In fact, at his first-year orientation, he left the class assembly to join that combo and play onstage for his fellow first-year students.
“I felt immediately accepted here,” he says. “Despite being six hours away from home. It was a real comfort.”
He majored in economics and jazz studies and minored in music production. He played with the Jazz Band and Jazz Combo in addition to many other smaller chamber ensembles.
“I was able to work closely with and receive individual attention from incredible faculty who are well known in the field, like Bill Warfield, Gene Perla, and David Riekenberg.”
He also dabbled in the local music scene with a variety of groups. He once filled in for a friend with a local salsa band and was invited to be a permanent member. He played gigs at SteelStacks and many other local stages.
Meeting Victoria
During his senior year, he began to date a friend he had met in high school: Victoria Medeiros. Like him, she played saxophone, and their paths had crossed at camps, all-state festivals, and other regional performances. She studied music performance and education at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School performing arts conservatory.
“To this day she is my favorite saxophone player,” he says. “She had a beautiful alto sound that no one could replicate.”
When he graduated, he moved to Connecticut, where she was finishing her fifth-year master’s degree. While there, Oehmen built his support system as he met the musical community, played gigs, and toured. Together, they built a life there.
In 2017, they were married. Ten months later, she was diagnosed with cancer. His part-time day job to buoy his music career had to shift to full-time work with benefits. When treatments were ineffective, they moved closer to their family in Massachusetts and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Despite the tremendous personal and professional challenges, Oehmen took a big step by recording an album during a stretch when Victoria was doing well.
The Album
While he had recorded some of his own music as part of an honors project at Lehigh, he had yet to book his own studio time. Still, Oehmen had set aside songs that he wanted to record.
“I had written music for others, recorded with groups, and released music, but I had nothing under my own name,” he says.
In 2021, he lined up musicians, booked Iron Wax Studios in the Berkshires — run by Alan Evans of the world-renowned band Soulive — and recorded over the course of a single day.
Sounds easy, but finding the right musicians, producer, and studio isn't easy. Let alone ensuring they play well together. Let alone funding the costs to record, mix, and master. Add art. Add promotion.
Oehmen had to learn the entire business side as he then distributed his music on a variety of streaming platforms that had different legal agreements and pay structures.
He’s proud of what he put his name on — the EP is called One of the Lucky Ones.
“I recorded songs that I would want to hear,” he says. It is a fusion of R&B, soul, funk, and jazz and has been well received in jazz circles.
Support System
Those circles mattered greatly when Victoria lost her fight against cancer. Musician friends from Lehigh dropped what they were doing in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and New Orleans to fly back and help Oehmen as he grieved. Professors reached out with calls as well.
As he maps a life without her by his side, he plans to move back to Connecticut — the place they called home for so long.
“I want to take back some control of what was lost over the last four years,” he says. “And focus on what is fulfilling, not just what will pay the bills. I want to play with friends, with enthusiasm, with joy. I want an audience to latch on to that.”
He has started to book gigs in many genres and has a busy schedule of summer performances ahead of him.
“Jazz is composed in moments when band members react to ideas and shifting dynamics,” he says. “You create a product that was never heard before and may never be heard again. As a musician, you add to the mix and get out of the way of that mix. It’s a different show every single night.”
He describes it as magic — the kind that comes from meeting the right people, at the right moment, and at the right place. You invite them in, and they change you. You embrace those changes and the unknowns that come along it.
“It’s a magic you strive for … in a song and in a life,” he says. “And then you are grateful, lucky even, since many may not get to experience that magic ever.”
The single "PIOTO" in the link off of the record One Of The Lucky Ones
Song called “Say Hey” in the link for the band West End Blend that featured Vicky on baritone sax
Song "Ten Months" in the link, dedicated to how long Mike and Vicky were married before her cancer diagnosis
Photo credits to Bryan Lasky (BDL Photography)