A Date With Judy Garland

Saturday, March 19, 2022 | 8 p.m.

Songstress Joan Ellison takes us on a nostalgic trip with songs made famous by Judy Garland, including “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, “Get Happy,” and “Almost like Being in Love.” Conductor and clarinetist Carl Topilow joins the Toledo Symphony for Broadway favorites from Showboat, 42nd Street, Girl Crazy, and more.

Carl Topilow is renowned worldwide for his versatility, whether he is holding a conductor's baton or his trademark red clarinet. He is a multi-talented virtuoso who is equally at home in classical and popular music both as conductor and instrumentalist. Carl's pops performances blend the music of Broadway and Hollywood, as well as popular music, light classics and jazz, often finding an occasion to include a number on his array of brightly colored clarinets. His unique approach to pops programming includes extensive audience involvement and true showmanship.

Carl is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, with a degree in clarinet performance and a masters degree in music education. He has held conducting fellowships with the National Orchestral Association with Leon Barzin and the Aspen Music Festival with under Jorge Mester. Carl began his professional career as Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra.

Following his longtime dream of conducting his own pops orchestra, Carl founded the Cleveland Pops Orchestra. The orchestra, currently in its 24th season, plays its subscription series in Severance Hall and performs in several other locations throughout Ohio. The Cleveland Pops Orchestra's diverse, innovative and electrifying programs have been critically acclaimed. The orchestra has three CDs, Music to Grow On, an exciting collection of music for children and adults of all ages, Live at the Pops, a stirring compilation of music taken from live performances, and a 20th anniversary CD, which includes a selection of live performances taken from concerts over a span from the past decade. Carl has also served as Principal Pops Conductor for the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra in Ft. Myers, Florida, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the Mansfield (OH) Symphony Orchestra. 

Carl served as Conductor and Director of the Orchestral Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 37 years. Graduates of his masters program in orchestral conducting at the Cleveland Institute of Music hold or have held positions with these orchestras and others:

Annapolis Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Orchestra of Limoges (France), Louisville Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica de Minas Gerais (Brazil), Ohio Light Opera, Richmond Symphony, US Army Band "Pershing's Own."

He was named Faculty Emeritus after his years of service at CIM. 

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, “Garland á Trois” (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.

This concert series is sponsored by Key Bank

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