Janette Fishell Headlines the Organ Conference Feb. 14-16

by Richard Veit

Janette Fishell, associate professor of music at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., will be a featured performer at Baylor University's annual Midwinter Organ Conference Feb. 14-16. She will present a Lyceum Series recital at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 15, in Jones Concert Hall.
Fishell is a recitalist and teacher of international standing. She has performed in many of the world's greatest concert venues, including Suntory Hall (Tokyo), King's College (Cambridge), the Schauspielhaus (Berlin) and the Liszt Academy (Budapest), as well as for the Prague Spring Festival and the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists. She holds degrees in organ performance from Indiana University and Northwestern University.
Her Baylor recital is part of "Dances of Life," a performance project celebrating the life and work of contemporary Czech composer Petr Eben, in recognition of his 70 birthday. Throughout the year, Fishell will perform the complete solo organ works of Eben, culminating in a gala performance at Saint Jacobi, Prague, with the composer in attendance. Next year she plans to record the complete works in a series of discs featuring some of Europe's finest organs.
"I have made a special study of Eben's music," she says, "having taken his solo organ works as the topic for my doctoral dissertation. Numerous articles and master classes, concerts and a compact disc have since grown from my investigation into Petr Eben's music, a study which has most happily been aided by my acquaintance with the composer."
The Lyceum Series Recital will include selections from Eben's "Sunday Music," "Versetti," "Homage to Dietrich Buxtehude," "Faust" and "Biblical Dances." It is free and open to the public. For more information, call the School of Music at 710-3991.