East Orange High School, East Orange, New Jersey, United States
Janis Ian attended East Orange High School.
College/University
Career
Gallery of Janis Ian
1993
Musical guest Janis Ian during an interview with host Jay Leno on June 10, 1993. Photo by Margaret Norton
Gallery of Janis Ian
1993
Actor Richard Dean Anderson, Sports Broadcaster Ahmad Rashad, Musical guest Janis Ian during an interview with host Jay Leno on June 10, 1993. Photo by Margaret Norton
Gallery of Janis Ian
1998
College of Du Page, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States
Janis Ian at the College of Du Page in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, on October 2, 1998. Photo by Paul Natkin
Gallery of Janis Ian
2004
Duo Music Exchange, Tokyo, Japan
Janis Ian during Janis Ian in Concert on July 31, 2004, at Duo Music Exchange in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Jun Sato
Gallery of Janis Ian
2004
Duo Music Exchange, Tokyo, Japan
Janis Ian during Janis Ian in Concert on July 31, 2004, at Duo Music Exchange in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Jun Sato
Gallery of Janis Ian
2007
City Hall, New York City, United States
Honorees Singer Janis Ian and Actress Christine Ebersole at the Press Conference of the 2007 New York State Senate Democratic Conference's "Salute To Pride" Awards Event held at City Hall on October 11, 2007, in New York City.
Gallery of Janis Ian
2007
City Hall, New York City, United States
Honoree, Actress Vanessa Redgrave, Honoree, Singer Deborah Cox, and Honoree, Singer Janis Ian at the Press Conference of the 2007 New York State Senate Democratic Conference's "Salute To Pride" Awards Event held at City Hall on October 11, 2007, in New York City.
Gallery of Janis Ian
2008
909 W Armitage Ave, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
Portrait of musician Janis Ian at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, Illinois, August 8, 2008. Photo by Paul Natkin
Gallery of Janis Ian
2011
Cadogan Hall, London, United Kingdom
Janis Ian performs on stage at Cadogan Hall on November 5, 2011, in London, United Kingdom. Photo by Robin Little
Gallery of Janis Ian
2012
Coffee Works Cafe, Voorhees, New Jersey, United States
Singer Janis Ian performs at the Coffee Works Cafe on November 1, 2012, in Voorhees, New Jersey. Photo by Bobby Bank
Gallery of Janis Ian
2012
Coffee Works Cafe, Voorhees, New Jersey, United States
Singer Janis Ian performs at the Coffee Works Cafe on November 1, 2012, in Voorhees, New Jersey. Photo by Bobby Bank
Gallery of Janis Ian
2012
Sala Apolo, Barcelona, Spain
Janis Ian performs on stage at Sala Apolo on January 31, 2012, in Barcelona, Spain. Photo by Jordi Vidal
Gallery of Janis Ian
2012
Coffee Works Cafe, Voorhees, New Jersey, United States
Singer Janis Ian performs at the Coffee Works Cafe on November 1, 2012, in Voorhees, New Jersey. Photo by Bobby Bank
Gallery of Janis Ian
2012
Sala Apolo, Barcelona, Spain
Janis Ian performs on stage at Sala Apolo on January 31, 2012, in Barcelona, Spain. Photo by Jordi Vidal
Gallery of Janis Ian
2013
1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, United States
Musician Janis Ian attends the GRAMMY Gift Lounge during the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center on February 7, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Alison Buck
Gallery of Janis Ian
2013
1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, United States
Musician Janis Ian attends the GRAMMY Gift Lounge during the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center on February 7, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Alison Buck
Gallery of Janis Ian
2015
155 Varick St, New York, NY 10013, United States
Janis Ian performs at City Winery on March 6, 2015, in New York City. Photo by Al Pereira
Gallery of Janis Ian
2016
10 Columbus Cir, New York, NY 10019, United States
Janis Ian performing at the Appel Room as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook on February 5, 2016. Photo by Hiroyuki Ito
Gallery of Janis Ian
2016
647 Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11217, United States
Jim D'Addario, singer-songwriter, Janis Ian and philanthropist Janet D'Addario attend the 2016 D'Addario Foundation "Music Makes You" benefit to support music education at Bric House on September 22, 2016, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Photo by Mireya Acierto
Gallery of Janis Ian
2016
647 Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11217, United States
Singer-songwriter, Janis Ian and executive director of D'Addario Foundation, Suzanne D'Addario attend the 2016 D'Addario Foundation "Music Makes You" benefit to support music education at Bric House on September 22, 2016, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Photo by Mireya Acierto
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Grammy Award
2013
1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, United States
Singer-songwriter Janis Ian, winner of Best Spoken Word Album award for "Society's Child: My Autobiography," poses in the press room at the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 10, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Frederick M. Brown
Actor Richard Dean Anderson, Sports Broadcaster Ahmad Rashad, Musical guest Janis Ian during an interview with host Jay Leno on June 10, 1993. Photo by Margaret Norton
Honorees Singer Janis Ian and Actress Christine Ebersole at the Press Conference of the 2007 New York State Senate Democratic Conference's "Salute To Pride" Awards Event held at City Hall on October 11, 2007, in New York City.
Honoree, Actress Vanessa Redgrave, Honoree, Singer Deborah Cox, and Honoree, Singer Janis Ian at the Press Conference of the 2007 New York State Senate Democratic Conference's "Salute To Pride" Awards Event held at City Hall on October 11, 2007, in New York City.
1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, United States
Musician Janis Ian attends the GRAMMY Gift Lounge during the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center on February 7, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Alison Buck
1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, United States
Musician Janis Ian attends the GRAMMY Gift Lounge during the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center on February 7, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Alison Buck
1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, United States
Singer-songwriter Janis Ian, winner of Best Spoken Word Album award for "Society's Child: My Autobiography," poses in the press room at the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 10, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Frederick M. Brown
Jim D'Addario, singer-songwriter, Janis Ian and philanthropist Janet D'Addario attend the 2016 D'Addario Foundation "Music Makes You" benefit to support music education at Bric House on September 22, 2016, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Photo by Mireya Acierto
Singer-songwriter, Janis Ian and executive director of D'Addario Foundation, Suzanne D'Addario attend the 2016 D'Addario Foundation "Music Makes You" benefit to support music education at Bric House on September 22, 2016, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Photo by Mireya Acierto
(Who Really Cares, Childhood Poems by Grammy Award-winning...)
Who Really Cares, Childhood Poems by Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Janis Ian, includes all poetry from earlier, print editions of this early proof of what was to come from one of America’s most talented songwriters. Though Ian is a prolific composer and world-famous for her music and performances, this is the musician’s only book of poetry. It was first published in 1969 and has become a collector’s item in print.
(Janis Ian and 30 top science fiction writers team up to c...)
Janis Ian and 30 top science fiction writers team up to create an astonishing book of original short fiction. STARS is a huge anthology in both volume and talent. Each story, available only here, is based on a Janis Ian song that meant something special to the author, who then wrote the story expressly for STARS, creating a meld of jazz, prose and science fiction found nowhere else - a treasure trove for fans of both SF and Janis Ian! Also, this edition of STARS features an original new story by Michael Swanwick, "For I Have Lain Me Down on The Stone of Loneliness and I’ll Not Be Back Again" based on "Mary’s Eyes," a Janis Ian song that has always moved him to tears.
Janis Ian is an American musician, singer, songwriter, author, and columnist. She was a prominent voice during the 1960s folk scene.
Background
Janis Ian was born on April 7, 1951, in New York, New York, United States. She is a daughter of Victor Fink, a music teacher, and Pearl Fink, a college fundraiser. In 1964, she legally changed her name to Janis Ian, taking her brother Eric's middle name as her new surname.
Education
Janis Ian attended East Orange High School in East Orange, New Jersey, and the New York City High School of Music and Art (now was merged with to High School of Performing Arts to form Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & the Arts). She started learning how to play the piano at the age of six.
At the age of twelve, Janis Ian wrote her first song "Hair of Spun Gold", which was published in the folk publication Broadside. At the age of thirteen, she wrote and sang her first single "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)". The song depicted the interracial romance which was looked down upon by the society and the parents of the girl in love. After she recorded and released it, the controversial song was ignored by most radio stations, and outright banned by others. Things changed for the song, and for Ian, when conductor Leonard Bernstein featured her on his TV show Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, calling her a "marvelous creature." She performed the song backed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The song charted at number 14 in 1967.
In 1967 she released her eponymous debut album, "Janis Ian", which was finally released on Verve Forecast. The album peaked at Number 29 and sold more than 350,000 copies. Following her debutant hit, she came up with three more albums simultaneously, "For All the Seasons of Your Mind", "The Secret Life of J Eddy Fink" and "Who Really Cares" in 1967, 1968 and 1969 respectively. She distributed the profits from the album to her friends and in charities.
At the age of 20, she announced her retirement from the music industry. However, the self-proclaimed hiatus did not last for long and she returned immediately to the music scene with her album, "Present Company". The album however did not fare well. Following the failure of her album, she moved to California to hone her writing skills. She re-emerged to the music scene three years later in 1974 with the album, 'Stars'. The album contained the song, "Jesse" which went on to become a Top 30 hit. In 1975 she released her seventh studio album "Between the Lines". The song "At Seventeen" from this album became very popular.
She immediately followed this up by releasing two more albums subsequently - "Aftertones" in 1976 and "Miracle Row" in 1977. The albums though successful did not recreate the meteoric rise of her previous album. In 1977, she came up with an anecdotal "On Valentine’s Day" which again was very well received by the public and the critics alike.
In 1979, she came up with the single, "Fly Too High". In 1980, she released the song, "You Are Love" which went on to become a top 10 single on the Japanese Oricon charts. In 1981, she came up with her next album, ‘Restless Eyes’. Though the album received critical acclaim, it did not get commercial success. The same year, she came up with the single, "Under the Covers" which reached the number 71 status at the pop charts.
More than a decade passed when Ian released her next album, Breaking Silence, in 1993. Songs include "Tattoo," about a Holocaust victim, "Guess You Had to Be There," a reference to the politics of her generation, and a love song, "Some People’s Lives." Another album, Revenge, released in 1995, was called "lyrically lame, instrumentally heavy-handed," by Nash. Hunger, released in 1997, was Ian’s first album for Windham Hill. Here she appears to seek a sense of be-longing and connection in titles that include "Honor Them All," about family, "Black & White," on racial equality, and "Getting over You," a song of sex and romance.
In 2000 she released "God & the FBI", "Folk Is the New Black" in 2006 and Strictly Solo in 2014. In 2003 Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian was published. In 2008 Ian published "Society's Child: My Autobiography".
When Janis Ian was asked how she sees LGBTQ community moving forward in a Trump administration Ian stated: "Well, I think the question for anyone in the LGBT community is can we move forward in this administration? This is an administration that is on record saying that we are crazy, that we’re mentally disturbed, that we need therapy to become ‘normal’. This is an administration that seeks to normalize hatred and bigotry and ignorance. My gosh if they’re normalizing anything it’s ignorance. They have the arrogance of their ignorance. So I don’t know that we can move forward. I hope we can but I think we’ll be doing very well if we can just manage to maintain at this point and I would say that goes across the board, not just for gay people but for the disabled, for anyone that dissents on either side and for anyone that is not white male and wealthy. I think the coalminers are going to get hit too. You know we’re not alone in this, it’s just that a lot of people don’t realize it yet."
Views
Since an early age, Janis Ian had a fascination for folk music and was inspired by the music of Joan Baez, Odetta, Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday. After the death of her mother, Janis Ian auctioned all the belongings of the latter and used the money gained to establish a scholarship program under Pearl Foundation. The fund aims at providing scholarship funds to various educational institutions.
Quotations:
"The best thing you can learn from the worst times of your life is that it always gets better. It may take a month, a year, a decade, but it will get better if you leave yourself open to it."
"Libraries are a hallmark of a civilized culture, and librarians represent that culture to all facets of society."
"At the end of the day, if you don't have a record contract, a studio or a guitar, you can still write songs. You're still an artist. That's something no one can take away."
"I think one of the reasons musicians keep doing what they do and writers keep doing what they do, is that we're totally unsuited for anything else. And I for one am much too lazy."
Personality
In 1993 Janis Ian let the world know of her sexual preferences as she claimed herself to be a lesbian.
Interests
reading
Connections
Janis Ian first married Peter Cunningham, a photojournalist whom she met at a peace rally. The marriage, however, failed and she, who had retired from music industry, switched back to singing and songwriting. In 1978 Janis Ian married Tino Sargo, a filmmaker. In 1983 they divorced. In 1989 she met Patricia Snyder. On August 27, 2003, she married Patricia. She has a stepdaughter and two grandchildren with Snyder.