People named Ellen Schwartz

About Ellen Ellen was one of a kind. She combined zaniness and toughness, freespirited-ness and discipline, inspiration and dedication - all wrapped up in one beautiful package. And on the top, not a ribbon, but one of her wonderful hats. And she created a body of work that any writer would be proud of. She got things done the old-fashioned way: she worked at it. For all her sense of fun and humor – which found its way into many of her lyrics – she had a steel-hard commitment to hard work, to encouraging others to live up to her high standards, and to working effectively with a wonderful crowd of collaborators. Their stories are told on the Collaborators page. Ellen’s earliest recorded work was music for children, which grew out of a successful children’s music school she ran called Fun with Music. She worked with her first collaborator, Bonnie Lee Sanders, on songs for the popular Care Bears characters, including Meet the Care Bears and Care Bears Bedtime Story, and for the Meet the Mr. Men and Little Misses recording, which is featured on the Children's Songs page. She branched out into writing individual pop songs – sometimes doing both words and music, sometimes collaborating with a composer and writing just the lyrics. Increasingly, her focus was on writing lyrics, and as her career developed, it’s fair to say that she regarded her lyrics – both for pop songs, and later for show tunes – as her most important work. The composers she collaborated with on individual songs include the gifted pianist/singer Sue Maskaleris (whose first collaboration won quarter-finalist in the American Song Festival), jazz legend Barbara Carroll, the extraordinary Gospel-inflected jazz singer Gail Wynters, composer and arranger Joel Diamond – and, in a couple of instances, her corporate lawyer/amateur jazz pianist husband Michael. The range and variety of her work in this field are awesome – straight pop, rock and roll, rockabilly, jazz and blues. Representative work is included on the Single Tunes page. Even after she began to devote herself intensively to Musical Theatre, Ellen continued to write lyrics for non-theatrical ventures. Of particular importance was her collaboration with Luiz Simas, a Brazilian-born composer and performer, on the album Recipe for Rhythm. Ellen wrote the English-language lyrics for the songs on the album. Clever, witty and poignant as always. Representative titles from Recipe for Rhythm are also included on the Single Tunes page. Ellen with her daughter Liza Ellen with her daughter Liza The first show she worked on, in collaboration with Bonnie Lee Sanders, was a musical version of the life of Mae West, Come Up ‘N See Me, which won the Quest Fest Competition in Great Britain (a program sponsored by Andrew Lloyd Webber). The show has gone through a huge number of versions and revisions. It was presented in several formats in several venues, notably in a production in 1999 at the Penguin Repertory Company, under the title Way-Out West, in which the part of Mae was played by a man – Jim Bailey. Songs from Come Up ‘N See Me have been widely performed by cabaret performers, notably Sharon McNight, who was a close friend of Ellen’s and in her own way a disciple of Ms. West. Ellen was accepted into the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where she honed her craft and made connections with a number of composers with whom she was to collaborate on future projects. These collaborators include David Strickland, with whom she wrote The Trapped Family Singers, Laura Kramer, with whom she wrote the songs for A Letter to Harvey Milk, and Skip Kennon, with whom she was working on a musical mystery called Tangled Webs (book by Bill Connington), that was left uncompleted when she passed away. Alyson, Joseph and Ellen Alyson, Joseph and Ellen The Trapped Family Singers, a composite of one-scene musicals in which the characters don’t just spontaneously burst into song but are trapped into doing so, was presented as part of the New York City Fringe Festival in 2003. Reviewers praised the music and lyrics; Gyda Arber wrote, “Ellen Schwartz’s lyrics-filled with clever and unexpected rhymes-reminded me of a modern Cole Porter.” A Letter to Harvey Milk, based on a short story by Leslea Newman, was presented as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2012. It was awarded the Most Promising Musical Award, and Ellen’s lyrics were honored with an award for Excellence in Writing – Lyrics. (The book by Jerry James also received an Excellence in Writing award.) Harvey Milk was a finalist for the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre in 2012. Ellen also worked on a number of theatrical projects with other collaborators. Among them was a one-woman show – called A Cast of Thousands - which she created in partnership with the prolific arranger and pianist Sy Johnson and actress/singer Judy Stadt, who was to be the “one woman.” While the show unfortunately never reached performance, a number of the songs were recorded by the well-known cabaret singer, Anne Hampton Calloway. Another project, which did reach the boards, was Second Avenue Rag, for which she composed the score with Joel Diamond (book by Allan Knee); it was produced at the Penguin Repertory Company. Songs from all of the shows mentioned above are included in the Show section of this site. Ellen's working methods were distinctive. Contentedly agoraphobic, she always wrote at home, scribbling away on yellow legal pads and always kept company by at least one dog. Sugar, her adored Yorkie, is pictured above. Ellen with her husband Michael Ellen with her husband Michael When Ellen turned (ahem) 70, her husband threw a huge “birthday bash” at Remi in midtown Manhattan where the guests of honor included her many collaborators, who are described in the Collaborators section of this website. Many of them expressed their love and respect for Ellen by performing some of the tunes they had written with her, and some of these performances are contained on this site here and here. Ellen’s achievements in her chosen profession were prodigious and memorable. She left us too young, when she passed away in May, 2013. She left her husband Michael, her children Liza (to hear Liza's beautiful singing, click here and here) and Joseph, her daughter-in-law Alyson, her grandchildren Lily and Isaiah Walsh (joined, after her passing, by Zev Yedidia Schwartz), her brother Richard Rubenstein, and a rich musical and lyrical legacy which this site aims to preserve.

Ellen L Schwartz of TX was born circa 1947. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Ellen L. (Whited) Schwartz.

Ellen R Schwartz of TX was born circa 1951. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Ellen R. (Levine) Schwartz.

Ellen M Schwartz was born on February 14, 1897, and died at age 94 years old on February 17, 1991. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Ellen M Schwartz.

Ellen Schwartz of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California was born on June 5, 1887, and died at age 85 years old in May 1973.

Ellen K Schwartz of Spanish Fork, Utah County, UT was born on October 13, 1903, and died at age 93 years old on February 21, 1997.

Ellen M Schwartz of Malta, Phillips County, MT was born on May 23, 1893, and died at age 95 years old on October 31, 1988.

Ellen F Schwartz of Saint Louis, Saint Louis County, MO was born on May 28, 1913, and died at age 91 years old on December 19, 2004.

Ellen Schwartz of Ada, Norman County, MN was born on August 27, 1916, and died at age 87 years old on October 23, 2003.

Ellen Schwartz of Saint Paul Park, Washington County, Minnesota was born on July 30, 1904, and died at age 69 years old in February 1974.

Ellen Schwartz of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Texas was born on May 6, 1887, and died at age 93 years old in March 1981.

Ellen Schwartz of Berkeley, Alameda County, California was born on October 19, 1903, and died at age 72 years old in August 1976.

Ellen Schwartz of Ferndale, Oakland County, Michigan was born on May 3, 1892, and died at age 92 years old in April 1985.

Ellen G Schwartz of San Diego, San Diego County, CA was born on August 26, 1918, and died at age 80 years old on December 26, 1998.

Ellen Schwartz was born on December 29, 1948, and died at age 36 years old in March 1985. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Ellen Schwartz.

Ellen T Schwartz of Catawba, York County, SC was born on December 24, 1918, and died at age 69 years old in April 1988.

Ellen Schwartz of Angola, Steuben County, Indiana was born on June 20, 1912, and died at age 70 years old in November 1982.

Ellen L Schwartz of Franklin, Oakland County, MI was born on September 13, 1927, and died at age 73 years old on December 8, 2000.

Ellen V Schwartz of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, OH was born on November 13, 1912, and died at age 81 years old in February 1994.

Ellen Schwartz of Chelsea, Suffolk County, Massachusetts was born on August 26, 1946, and died at age 38 years old in August 1984.

Ellen Schwartz of Youngstown, Mahoning County, OH was born on January 23, 1911, and died at age 93 years old on November 3, 2004.

Ellen M Schwartz of Richmond, Henrico County, VA was born on November 21, 1921, and died at age 73 years old on October 20, 1995.

Ellen Schwartz of Westminster, Carroll County, MD was born on August 20, 1922, and died at age 84 years old on September 7, 2006.

Ellen S Schwartz of Pikesville, Baltimore County, MD was born on August 23, 1902, and died at age 97 years old on April 11, 2000.

Ellen Schwartz of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania was born on May 4, 1895, and died at age 78 years old in April 1974.

Ellen E Schwartz of Zelienople, Butler County, PA was born on July 16, 1908, and died at age 83 years old in December 1991.

Ellen C Schwartz of Lansdale, Montgomery County, PA was born on March 9, 1939, and died at age 66 years old on December 25, 2005.

Ellen M Schwartz of Allentown, Lehigh County, PA was born on July 30, 1902, and died at age 89 years old in June 1992.

Ellen Schwartz was born on January 11, 1907, and died at age 83 years old on May 24, 1990. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Ellen Schwartz.