Organist Janette Fishell to perform final concert in ‘Series of Sebastian’ series

Janette Fishell, chair of the organ department at the Jacobs School of Music, will play the last concert in her organ concert series at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 in Alumni Hall, the school announced Tuesday.

The concert will be free and open to the public.

Fishell is a graduate of IU and Northwestern University, and she has had performances around the world, including Tokyo, Cambridge, Berlin and Budapest.

In 2008, she was appointed as a professor and chair of the organ department at IU.

Fishell started this concert series, “Series of Sebastian,” in October 2010.

The series features 21 concerts, with the concert Dec. 9 being her 21st.

Together, the concerts present all of J. S. Bach’s solo organ work.

Past concerts have also been free, and they have been performed in multiple Bloomington churches and University buildings.

Fishell will perform this concert on the new organ in Alumni Hall, and the piece is built around William Shakespeare’s “Seasons of Man.”

However, Fishell linked the theme of the piece back to her personal life and the first concert she performed during the series.

“The 21st — and final — recital in the ‘Seasons of Sebastian’ cycle is titled ‘My End is My Beginning,’ and, when I think about it, that title is very prescient since I am both looking forward to the completion of this project and realize that it really is just a portal leading to further explorations of this great body of repertoire,” Fishell said in a press release.

­— Amanda Arnold