Jacobs organist shares personal chronology for love of music

Janette Fishell began playing piano at age five.

While most children were still learning their ABCs, Fishell was beginning her musical career. But she remembers music being a part of her life before then.

“I began studying the piano at the age of five, but my first memories involved
listening to and singing hymns in church. So I can’t remember a time when music was not part of my life,” Fishell said via email.

Fishell now works as a professor in the Jacobs School of Music.

She recently embarked upon a 21-concert, three-year project, “The Seasons of Sebastian,” in which she performed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach for the first time on campus and in the Bloomington community.

But Fishell plays more than the piano and organ. In her adolescence, she dabbled playing several instruments for the school band.

“I play the harpsichord and conducted on a somewhat serious level,” Fishell said. “I also played in the school band. (I played) trumpet, French horn and baritone because my older sister played the trumpet and I wanted to be like her.”

Fishell doesn’t remember choosing music for her career, but she says it felt like a natural choice.

“I don’t remember making that decision. The knowledge that I would be a musician was just always part of me,” Fishell said. “I certainly never made the decision to do this for a living, because I just followed my star and thought, probably very naively, that if I worked hard and long enough, I would make enough money at it to make a living.”

Fishell’s music choices vary greatly, from Bach to The Police.

“I could not imagine a world without Johann Sebastian Bach. I also love the Impressionists — French, American and British — and to unwind I love English choral music sung by great choirs who really know how to create a beautiful, blended sound. My own compositions are always a pale version of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbert Howells, so I channel them subconsciously.”

When Fishell was a teenager, she said she listened to Cat Stephens, James Taylor, Carole King and Dan Fogelberg. She also listens to jazz and blues and said her guilty pleasure is “really good bluegrass music.”

“I love its Celtic origins, and the singers really zone in on the center of the pitch by singing with a straighter tone that is very satisfying,” Fishell said.

When she was younger, Fishell also traveled with her sister as part of the musical duo the Fishell Sisters, with Janette on piano and another sister, Julia, singing.

“It was a wonderful way to give great music to small churches and a very formative experience for us,” Fishell said.

Another great experience, Fishell said, was touring all over the world  with her husband Colin Andrews playing organ recitals, including a grand tour of six weeks in the USSR right before the coup.