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Euclid songstress will portray Ella Fitzgerald at Women’s History Lunch at the Lake County History Center

Voice actor Tina Stump of Euclid will bring the spirit of jazz artist Ella Fitzgerald to those gathered March 19 for the annual Women’s History Lunch at the Lake County History Center in Painesville Township.

Stump says Fitzgerald, often referred to as the “First Lady of Song,” is one of her primary musical influences.

“I have long been fascinated with Ella’s ability to make music,” Stump said. “Not just sing it or record it but to MAKE it.”

But like Fitzgerald, who worked with jazz greats ranging from Duke Ellington to Nat King Cole, Stump got into the music business accidentally. By day, she’s a longtime kindergarten teacher, but by night, the mezzo-soprano has been a guest soloist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and the Cleveland Opera, and she’s appeared at in productions by Cleveland Play House, Great Lakes Theater, Cleveland Public Theatre and Dobama Theatre, as well as the Empire Hackney Theatre in London.

“I got into theater accidently when I was 14 and got off at the wrong floor at the Supplementary Center, a summer program aimed at keeping Cleveland kids off the streets,” she said.

That’s when she met a theater group at work and joined them to begin doing musical theater.

Fitzgerald, who earned 13 Grammy Awards and sold more than 40 million albums in her lifetime, got her start accidentally, too, Stump has learned. Fitzgerald was 17 and a troubled teenager during the Depression in New York City when, in 1934, her name was pulled in a drawing at the Apollo Theater for the chance to perform in an amateur show. She went to the theater planning to dance, but when she saw another dance performance, she made a last-minute decision to sing. After she sang Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy,” the audience demanded an encore and her career as a jazz singer was launched.

Although shy and self-conscious about her appearance off-stage, Fitzgerald felt at home in the spotlight, drawing energy from the love and acceptance of her audiences. She began entering more talent shows and before long got her first job traveling with a band for $12.50 a week.

Stump learned that as the focus of popular music turned to bebop, Fitzgerald began to use her voice to take on the role of another horn in the band. Her experiments with scat singing thrilled her fans.

“Scat is my biggest challenge musically,” said Stump, who sings snippets of Fitzgerald’s works throughout her hourlong performance.

“Scat is really very calculated,” she continued. “You must listen to an instrument and make it happen with your voice. No one can do it like Ella.”

Stump is glad to be back doing live performances after portraying Fitzgerald on Zoom sessions the past two years.

In 1991, Fitzgerald gave her final performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Before she died in 1996 at the age of 79, she’d received the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan and the Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime Achievement.

One of the most interesting things Stump says she’s learned is about the great jazz singer’s friendship with Marilyn Monroe. She’ll detail that in her Women’s History Lunch performance. The meal includes honey mustard pretzel-crusted chicken, a salad with fruit, nuts and Balsamic dressing, rice pilaf and green beans with an ice cup for dessert.

Women’s History Lunch

When: March 19.

Where: Heritage Hall, Lake County History Center, 415 Riverside Drive, Painesville Township.

Tickets: $38, members; $42, non-members.

Reservations: 440-639-2945.

Deadline: 5 p.m. March 17.