The Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) announced this morning that vocalist Joan Ellison, known for her specialty in reviving Judy Garland’s music from the golden Hollywood years will perform with the TSO on Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 8PM at the Peristyle Theater as part of the KeyBank Pops Series, made possible by Hylant.
“Judy Garland was, to my mind, the greatest singer of the 20th century,” says Joan Ellison. “The greatest songwriters of the golden age of American popular song were writing songs for her, and she was working with the top musical arrangers in Hollywood and New York, including Conrad Salinger and Nelson Riddle. It’s going to be such a thrill to hear the marvelous Toledo Symphony bring her original arrangements back to life, and there’s absolutely no place I’d rather be than on that stage singing them!”
Vocalist Joan Ellison has been praised for her “vocal prowess...[and] organic grasp of the classic songs” by Michael Feinstein and has made a specialty of reviving Judy Garland’s music from the golden Hollywood years, appearing at Carnegie Hall concert and television shows, as well as restoring Ms. Garland’s original orchestrations.
In 2005, Ellison made her Cleveland Pops Orchestra debut at Severance Hall and has since collaborated with over 50 orchestras nationwide. In 2016, she played the role of Ms. Garland in the first U.S. professional regional production of The Boy from Oz. In addition to performing, Ellison has a passion for restoration. She currently serves as Editor of the Judy Garland Carnegie Hall Concert Restoration Project for the Judy Garland Heirs Trust and most recently had the honor of restoring the newly rediscovered MGM film arrangement of “Over the Rainbow.”
Ellison earned an M.M.T. and Bachelor of Music degree in Voice from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and currently serves on faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association.
HOW TO ATTEND:
What: A Date with Judy Garland
When: Saturday, March 19, 2022
Where: Peristyle Theater, 2445 Monroe Street, Toledo, Ohio
In-person Ticket Cost: Tickets begin at $22
Livestreaming Ticket Cost: $19.99
More info: Visit toledosymphony.com, stop by the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts’ Box Office located at 1838 Parkwood Avenue, or call 419.246.8000, Monday-Friday, 9-5 PM.
For more information about A Date with Judy Garland, please contact Vanessa Gardner, Director of Marketing & Communications at vgardner@artstoledo.com.
ABOUT JOAN ELLISON
Joan Ellison has been praised for her "vocal prowess....[and] organic grasp of the classic songs" by Michael Feinstein, and has made a specialty of reviving Judy Garland’s repertoire from the golden Hollywood years to her Carnegie Hall concert and television show, including restoring Ms. Garland’s glorious original orchestrations. Of her NYC solo cabaret show at Feinstein’s/54 Below, Cabaret Scenes Magazine wrote: “[Joan is] Judy-esque in appearance and…a near voice double for her idol.”
Recent concert highlights include a song-for-song recreation of Garland’s 1961 Carnegie Hall concert hosted by Judy’s daughter, Lorna Luft, and conducted by Michael Berkowitz (Liza Minnelli’s conductor/drummer), with Joan and Broadway divas Debbie Gravitte and Karen Mason; “Get Happy! Joan Ellison Sings Judy Garland” with the Toledo, Evansville, Enid, and Ashland Symphonies and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra; “Judy & Liza at the Palladium” with the Santa Rosa Pops and in Naples, Florida with conductor Michael Berkowitz; a streamed Garland concert for the New Haven Symphony; Holiday Pops appearances with the Erie Philharmonic, Augusta Symphony, and Cleveland Pops; sold-out performances in Florida of her one-woman theatre piece, All Happiness, Judy Garland; a concert for the annual Judy Garland Festival in Judy’s birthplace of Grand Rapids, Minnesota; and “The American Musical on Stage and Screen” as part of the 2019 Bard Music Festival (NY). Her trio concert celebrating the Garland Centennial, “Love Finds Judy Garland” (with Joan, pianist Shane Schag, and cellist Nora Willauer), will debut in the 2021-22 season.
In 2016, Joan embarked on a mission to restore Judy Garland’s original orchestrations. At Michael Feinstein’s invitation she serves as Editor of the Judy Garland Carnegie Hall Concert Restoration Project for the Judy Garland Heirs Trust. Most recently, Joan was given the privilege of restoring the newly-rediscovered MGM film arrangement of “Over the Rainbow.”
Joan made her Cleveland Pops Orchestra debut at Severance Hall in 2005 and has since sung more than 50 concerts coast-to-coast with the National Repertory Orchestra, Wheaton Pops, Canton Symphony, Bemus Bay Pops, Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Lakeside Symphony, Ohio Valley Symphony, and Whiting Park Festival Orchestra, and upcoming engagements with the Jacksonville, New Haven, Punta Gorda, Toledo, Paducah, and Springfield Symphonies.
In 2016, she played the role of Ms. Garland in the first U.S. professional regional production of The Boy From Oz. In addition to touring the country with shows she co-created, Love Finds Judy Garland and Gershwin On the Air, Joan has played classic leading-lady roles including Julie in Carousel, Nellie in South Pacific, Lizzie in 110 in the Shade, and Eliza in My Fair Lady (in concert). Her critically-acclaimed second album, “Retrophonic Gershwin” (2015), was recorded at Oberlin's Clonick Hall and mixed and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Robert Friedrich.
She earned an M.M.T. and a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice from Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Early musical highlights while growing up in Iowa included playing Flora in The Turn of the Screw with the Des Moines Metro Opera, opposite Lauren Flanigan, and singing for Liza Minnelli when she came to town. She also serves as Teacher of Popular Voice at The Cleveland Institute of Music and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. www.joanellison.com
ABOUT TOLEDO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Toledo Symphony Orchestra is a community-supported organization of professional musicians and teachers who deliver quality performance and music education for all.
Formed in 1943 as The Friends of Music and incorporated in 1951 as the Toledo Orchestra Association, Inc., the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has grown from a core group of twenty-two part-time musicians to a regional orchestra that employs sixty-nine professional musicians who consider the Toledo Symphony their primary employer, as well as numerous extra players annually as repertoire demands.
On January 1, 2019, the Toledo Symphony and Toledo Ballet officially merged to form the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), a new non-profit organization dedicated to providing exceptional live music and dance performances and education for the region. This partnership promises to create new and invigorating programs, provide cost and revenue synergies in operations, and integrate the arts through shared educational missions.
The Toledo Symphony reaches more than 260,000 individuals annually through performances and education programs. The series concerts (Masterworks, Pops, Chamber) are the critical underpinning of the orchestra’s artistic mission and regularly draw people from 135 postal zip codes. Education programs, student performances, and community concerts are held in schools, neighborhood churches, performing arts centers, and community facilities throughout the region; many are offered at no charge or provided at a reduced fee to help expand participation.
