Elizabeth Sullivan’s 95th Birthday Concert
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, NYC, May 22, 2025
Reported by Alix Cohen
“Sometimes the genetic master way up yonder decides on His more expansive days to sprinkle the special genes abundantly on some family.” Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal
Eight children were born to Elizabeth “Betty” and Jim Sullivan, who married at 16 and had been married 62 years when he died in 2009. Their family began on a farm in Boggy Depot, Oklahoma. The Sullivan siblings grew up to be interdependent. They took care of each other and shared chores, and they also shared a talent for music. On Elizabeth’s side of the family, all, it seems, played instruments and sang. The kids learned piano and voice from their mom, a tradition that continues with her grandchildren. Jim Sullivan “loved to sing but had a challenge with pitch” so he became their biggest fan. Her daughter KT Sullivan attributes the way she relaxes her jaw and breathes to watching her mother sing. And sing Elizabeth Sullivan has done and continues to do, as well as write songs.
At 95 and recovering from a hip operation, the birthday girl was as stubbornly independent (she will not be helped around the stage, thank you), graceful, elegant, and proud as ever. “You Are the Reason I sing my song/Without you listening/It would go so wrong,” she proffered arms, wide and welcoming. At the piano her “adopted son” Mark Nadler, gently shepherding and beaming.
When he and Elizabeth were students, Jim Sullivan had an assignment to write a sonnet. Elizabeth said she’d do it for him; she looked up the definition of sonnet and completed the task. She remembered it and recited “The Wall.” It was striking in its spirituality and maturity.
Hands clasped in deep feeling, her son Dr. Patrick Sullivan gamely sang “Skies”: “When did you look to the skies and wonder?/What was the moment you knew/Someone was reaching for you?” (Elizabeth accompanied on piano.)
There were times when tonight’s honoree was inspired to set someone else’s poetry to music. “When There Never Was a Box” by Gail Maidman expressed Sullivan’s philosophy: “If my music has no dancing/And my dancing has no song/Then who is there to tell me/That I sang and danced it wrong?” KT offered a light soprano rendition of “Now” ( lyric by Robert Browning). Her late husband Steve Downey had quoted the poem to her on their first date. (He was president of the Browning Society.) An album of the poet’s songs was recorded. At the piano, KT performed “Carpet Ride” by her sister Heather who couldn’t be there tonight. It was a lovely pean to adventure with “the wind against your skin.”
Two of Elizabeth’s most stirring original songs followed, imbued with her own tremulous vocal. “Do I Remember You?” (“No. You have never left my mind long enough to need remembering”) and “Not Tonight” (“There may be a time when I’ll not want you/But not tonight”). The latter was written for Jim’s 70th birthday. At the side of the stage, the family watched, rapt.
Stacy Sullivan sweetly performed “My Little World.” She told us of driving across country with her husband, visiting Elizabeth in July only to find, having missed spending the holiday together, her mom had cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner.
“Turn It Around” seemed unique in Elizabeth’s oeuvre. Daughter-in-law Robin sang the country song as she rolled feelings as well as the lyrics around her throat. “Good” had five syllables. Talented young Montana, who learned piano from his gram, played a striking and evocatively happy piano composition of his own. His sister Layla, having just returned to the instrument, played Pachelbel Cannon in D Major.
Introduced as her adopted son, Mark Nadler performed the hell out of Elizabeth’s request, “I Love a Piano” (Irving Berlin). The lyric “It carries me away” literally carried him off the bench. Nadler bounced, shimmied, fell, and flailed. He added touches of classical, ragtime, stride, and Chopsticks; he mugged, adjusted his apparel, and sped up to a passionate denouement. KT could hardly contain herself.
Stacy and KT duetted on the signature “As Long as We Sing,” which was inspired by Mabel Mercer. It was a genteel anthem. The evening wound down with a group performance of “Picture Hangs on the Wall” about home and hearth, followed by an encore of “Time”: “There’s much to say/Too little spoken.” Too true.
All songs were written by Elizabeth Sullivan unless otherwise noted. See you next year!
