Diane Bish

Diane Joyce Bish (born May 25, 1941) is an American organist and composer, as well as executive producer and host of The Joy of Music television series. As a concert organist, she performs frequently at recitals throughout North America and Europe.

Bish graduated from Wichita East High School in Wichita, Kansas, in 1959. She had played on the 1925 Austin Organ installed in the school auditorium. In 1984, she returned there to play a benefit concert, which raised enough money for the organ to be restored.

Bish began studying organ as a student of Dorothy Addy, then of Mildred Andrews. Later, she was a recipient of Fulbright and French government grants for study in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Marie-Claire Alain.

On October 31, 2002, in Bloomington, Indiana, a fire consumed the home that Bish shared with harpist Susann McDonald. Among the many personal possessions lost were a Yamaha grand piano and Rodgers digital organ, but fortunately both women escaped without injuries.

Beginning in the 1970s, Bish served for more than 20 years as organist and artist-in-residence at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she designed the 117-rank Ruffatti organ in the sanctuary. During this time, she began producing a weekly television program of organ music, The Joy of Music. A music writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper said in 1986 that Bish "combines masterful music and religion in a life filled with church work, concerts, and writing and producing her own TV show".

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