Diane Bish

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".

As of 2016, The Joy of Music continues to feature her performances, taped on-location at prominent organs in North America and Europe. The Joy of Music is seen in North American via independent, faith-based, and satellite networks, and selected PBS stations. The show has an international audience via Eternal Word Television Network, The Church Channel, BibelTV, Roku, VelugaTV, Gospel Channel, Alfa/Omega TV, and YouTube. Since the program's beginning in the early 1980s, she has recorded over 500 episodes as of 2016, each of which shows her playing one or more different pipe or digital organs.

No longer resident organist at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Bish now makes frequent concert appearances at recitals throughout North America.

On April 29, 2016, Bish was awarded the inaugural Distinguished Career Award by the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, presented to her at the historic Marble Collegiate Church. In 1989, Bish was awarded the National Citation by the National Federation of Music Clubs of America, considered to be the Federation's highest honor.

Bish has made over thirty recordings on many of the great organs of the world, including the celebrated Müller organ of the St.-Bavokerk (or Grote Kerk) in Haarlem, Netherlands, Canterbury Cathedral, and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. She is the first American woman to record at the organ of Freiburg Cathedral in Freiburg, Germany. Her recordings include music for organ and orchestra, brass and organ, cello and organ, most of the great masterpieces for solo organ, original compositions and hymn arrangements.

Bish has published seven books and numerous solo pieces for organ, along with arrangements of various hymns including "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today". Her compositions include:

• Festival Te Deum, for organ and orchestra
• Lead On, O King Eternal, for organ and choir
• Joy of Music, organ settings of hymns
• Passion Symphony, for organ and narrator
• Symphony of Psalms, for organ, choir, orchestra and soloist
• Morning Has Broken, for organ, choir, orchestra and narrator.
• German Carol Fantasy, for organ solo
• Dance of the Trumpets, for organ solo
• Introduction, Theme and Variations on "All Creatures of Our God and King", for solo organ