For Immediate Release

Diane Bish, the “First Lady of the Organ,” Schedules Concert at Princeton Theological Seminary October 8

Princeton, NJ, September 29, 2005–World-renowned concert and recording artist Diane Bish will present the Joe. R. Engle Organ Concert at Princeton Theological Seminary at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 8 in Miller Chapel on the Seminary campus. 

Perhaps best known through her international television series “The Joy of Music,” Bish was honored with the National Citation from the National Federation of Music Clubs of America in 1989. She was the first organist to receive the award, given as “the highest honor for distinguished service to the musical, artistic, and cultural life of the nation.” She shares this rare distinction with Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, Eugene Ormandy, Robert Shaw, Fred Waring, and Van Cliburn, among others.

Bish has made a name for herself by packing concert halls, churches, and cathedrals for her recitals, which reach audiences of all ages and all musical tastes. The Boston Globe called her playing “virtuosic and solidly musical,” reporting that she “blasted the crowd out of its pews in a whooping standing ovation.”

Bish, along with the Seminary’s Cantate Domino Choir, will perform a program of organ favorites, as well as her own choral anthems and hymn arrangements. The concert will showcase the many voices of the Seminary’s Joe R. Engle Organ, a three-manual pipe organ built by Paul Fritts and Company and installed in 2000.

The concert is open to the public free of charge, through a generous endowment given by Seminary benefactor Joe R. Engle. However, admission tickets are required as seating is limited. For a free admission ticket or information, call 609-497-7890. Tickets will go quickly.

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