Joan Ellison
Lecturer in Voice
M.M.T., B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Joan Ellison, M.M.T., B. Mus. in Voice Performance, Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Member: International Voice Care Network, Actors' Equity Association. Voice study with Leon Thurman (belting technique and pedagogy) and Daune Mahy; piano study with Robert McDonald and Sharyl Smith.
In 2005, Ms. Ellison made her Severance Hall debut in "To Broadway with Love" with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, opposite Broadway baritone William Michals, and returned as their headliner on New Year's Eve the following year. She has appeared as Julie Jordan in Carousel (Kalliope Stage), Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade (Kalliope), Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (JCC Theatre), Claudia in Nine (Cain Park), Rapunzel in Into the Woods (Cain Park), Flora in The Turn of the Screw (Des Moines Metro Opera), and as a featured performer in A Grand Night for Singing (Kalliope) and The Music of Jacques Brel (Kalliope).
She is the co-creator and musical arranger for Circa 1939 (www.circa1939.com), a troupe specializing in historically-informed performance of the American popular songbook; their cabaret-style concerts include A Date with Judy: The Songs of Young Judy Garland, Gershwin '29, and The Broadway Radio Hour of 1951. Recent performances include three extended engagements at Stages at the Cleveland Play House and regular appearances at Nighttown, Stocker Arts Center, Cain Park, and many other venues. Her debut CD, A Date with Judy: Joan Ellison Sings the Songs of Young Judy Garland, is available at www.CDbaby.com.
Ms. Ellison has also music-directed 25 theatrical productions in Minneapolis and Cleveland, served as the musical supervisor for Kalliope Stage in its award-winning debut year and the vocal coach for Great Lakes Theatre Festival's production of Private Lives, and has presented numerous workshops and master classes on music-theatre vocal styles. Her students have performed on Broadway and television, and in major regional theatres and national tours.
Email: jellison@bw.edu .
Email: jellison@bw.edu .