Musical Theater Project's OVER THE RAINBOW: THE SONGS OF HAROLD ARLEN to Play Cuyahoga Community College's Eastern Campus Performing Arts Center, 1/18

The Musical Theater Project celebrates the 75th anniversary year of The Wizard of Oz by saluting the composer behind the music in "Over the Rainbow: The Songs of Harold Arlen," to be presented at Cuyahoga Community College's Eastern Campus Performing Arts Center on Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 3pm.

Co-hosted by TMTP artistic director Bill Rudman and Tri-C Jazz Studies faculty member Joe Hunter, the concert will feature songs spanning Arlen's 40-year career including "Stormy Weather," "I've Got the World on a String," "That Old Black Magic," "Blues in the Night" and the most beloved American song of the 20th century (according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts), "Over the Rainbow."

TMTP's multi-media concert includes dozens of still images and rare film clips from Arlen's life. The company comprises top local jazz musicians: vocalists Erin Keckan, Vince Mastro and Evelyn Wright, with Hunter on piano, Bryan Thomas on bass and Ray Porrello on drums. Rudman and Hunter will provide commentary.

More than any other major composer for American musicals, Harold Arlen (1905-86) crossed over from the worlds of Broadway and Hollywood to jazz. His music is steeped in both the blues and in the rich Hebraic tradition of his family. This music runs so deep that it's become a permanent part of our culture.

Arlen's biographer, Rudman's friend Edward Jablonski, told him, "Harold considered his art to be rather mysterious: a gift that came from 'up there.' Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Peggy Lee loved him because he wrote so brilliantly for singers, but he was never one to toot his own horn. He just quietly did his work, and over a period of 40 years he created hundreds of gems."

Cuyahoga Community College's Eastern Campus is located at 4250 Richmond Road in Highland Hills. General tickets are priced at $20. Tickets are available through TMTP's box office at 216-245-8687.

"Over the Rainbow: The Songs of Harold Arlen" is presented as part of "The Song Is You!" concert and cabaret season produced each year by The Musical Theater Project at a variety of locations.