JANSSEN PLANS CONCERT

EAGLE STAFF
When Shannon Janssen was a toddler, she used to bang away on a toy organ and make up songs. Although she does not remember this, her parents Neil and Mary Cantonwine of rural Vinton like to tell her the story of how her career as a pianist began. As she outgrew the toy organ, Shannon took lessons from Inge Schminke of rural Shellsburg who just lived a few miles from the Cantonwines. She continued her lessons with Mrs. Schminke until she graduated from Washington High School in 1976. She took lessons into her 20s and 30s, mastering her craft.

“You have to enjoy it,” she said of playing piano. “To me, it was like a mission. When I was a kid, I had to get a song right even if I had to practice it 100 times.” After a stint as a bus driver in the Vinton-Shellsburg School District, she taught piano lessons in her home for 12 years." I used to tell my students, ‘there is going to come a time when you understand it,’” she said.

While teaching lessons, she also began to play piano at Von Maur in Cedar Rapids, as well as the Collins Plaza, which is now the Marriott Hotel. “People who listened to me at Von Maur would ask, ‘when are you going to record?’” Although it was a hard decision, she stopped teaching piano lessons in the late 1990s to concentrate on writing music and recording. “I would have never done it if I wouldn’t have had the encouragement,” she said of recording.

She hooked up with producer Mark Pence of Cedar Rapids and began work on her first CD, “Heart Journey,” in 2001. Pence added strings and other instruments with a synthesizer to Janssen’s piano music. After the CD was made, Janssen went to stores in Eastern Iowa to market it. She would leave them a CD to listen to and call back later. She said 99 percent of the time, the stores agreed to carry it.

She made “Piano Paintings” in 2002 and just recently released “The Keys of Christmas.” With all the Christmas music on the market, she didn’t want to do the same old thing. “I wanted to do it my on way and put a different twist on it,” she said. Along with new spins on traditional Christmas songs like “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night,” she also wrote four original songs for the CD. “I usually have a picture in my mind,” she said of writing and naming songs.

She is busy at work preparing for her third concert. In November 2004 she played at Upper Iowa University and in January 2005 she played at the Scottish Rite Temple in Cedar Rapids. This Saturday at 7:30 p.m. she returns to the Scottish Rite Temple at 616 A Ave. NE for a Christmas concert. Her concert with Pence on synthesizer is accompanied by a slide show. “It shows the vision I had while writing the song,” she said of the slide show. For example, the slide show for “Favourite Colors” shows the bright colors of Christmas, including ornaments, lights and presents. She made the slide show on the computer using pictures and quotes which fit a song’s meaning.

“I really want to touch people’s hearts,” she said. Although she is enjoying her success, she is most comfortable at home in Vinton with her husband of 29 years, Rod. “My goal is to keep writing music which brings joy or stirs a memory,” she said.

Tickets for her concert Saturday at the Scottish Rite Temple are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. They are available at Clingman’s, 106 E. Fourth St. To order by credit card call Scottish Rite at (319) 364-2904.