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.

Recent concert highlights include her symphonic pops concert, Get Happy! A Judy Garland Celebration, with the Cleveland Pops and Toledo, Jacksonville, Portland, New Haven, Paducah and other symphonies; Holiday 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; Judy and Liza at the Palladium with the Santa Rosa Pops; a concert for the annual Judy Garland Festival in Judy’s birthplace of Grand Rapids, Minnesota; and 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). Her cabaret concert celebrating the Garland Centennial, Love Finds Judy Garland, played theatres in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maine. 

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. 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 65 orchestra concerts coast-to-coast. In 2016, she played the role of Ms. Garland in the first U.S. professional regional production of The Boy From Oz. 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.

She earned an M.M.T. and a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice from Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Early musical highlights 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 serves as Teacher of Popular Voice at The Cleveland Institute of Music and for the M.F.A. Acting Program at the Cleveland Play House/Case Western Reserve University and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. www.joanellison.com