Guest Artist Bio

GUEST ARTIST

GARY ELLISON, Piano

Gary Ellison got his start in the entertainment business when he was in high school as a square dance caller on ABC-TV’s OZARK JUBILEE. On the show he worked with his piano teacher, S. K. Grundy, and met Ragtime Bob Darch who interested him in the music and the music’s history. Ellison began playing this Missouri music locally in Springfield, and after college he performed in nightclubs and restaurants all across the country. He played at Coca-Cola Corner in Disneyland, performed with the Springfield Youth Symphony in the Plaza at Lincoln Center in New York City, and hauled his old upright piano (once owned by Mickey Mantle) from Boston to the Rio Grand Valley in Texas, and from a home base in Kansas City to the Florida Gulf Coast. The Gary Ellison USO Show toured American bases in South Vietnam in 1967. In 1968 the Ellison troupe toured South Korea. In 1973 the Missouri Senate passed a resolution naming Ellison “Missouri’s Official Ragtime Piano Player.” Governor Kit Bond proclaimed March 3, 1984 as Gary Ellison Day in Missouri, and that weekend, Ellison played three concerts of the music of Scott Joplin and other Missouri composers in the Governor’s Mansion. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Ellison was involved with the Springfield Symphony. He performed two concerts in the park with the symphony; one concert in the amphitheater in Phelps Grove Park, and another on a hillside at Dickerson Park Zoo. For eight years he served as MC for the Springfield Symphony’s Independence Day celebration with Firefall. In 2007 Ellison received the “Ozzie Award” from the Springfield Area Arts Council in recognition of his work in promotion, personification and support of artistic achievement in the Springfield area. He had served as president of the group that restored the Gillioz Theatre. For the past 15 years Ellison, backed by Dave Gravatt and the New Creole Jazz Band, presented a New Orleans-style gospel service highlighting the stories and the gospel tunes of the Crescent City. When he performs the audience hears the origins of our popular music and the stories of the composers. They are invited to sing along and participate in this truly American art form. Gary Ellison lives in Springfield, Missouri, with his wife Janet.