"Ms. Austin has an ear that is finely tuned to both the sounds of the big-band era and the rhythms of live radio broadcasting…………a skillful vocal chameleon."
Stephen Holden - The New York Times
"Ms. Austin, who does an Ethel Merman that is louder and sounds more like Ethel Merman than Ethel Merman, let it rip!"
James Barron - The New York Times
"The show's funniest sketch, a serial, produced a new star, actress Ivy Austin."
Time Magazine
Ivy Austin is best known for her work on NPR as the vocalist and comedienne from 
Garrison Keillor's, "A Prairie Home Companion." Each week, three million listeners tuned in as the radio songbird took her place at the microphone to croon with Rob
Fisher and The Coffee Club Orchestra, and play a host of characters including Gloria in "The Story of Gloria," and the crusty-voiced French lady, Babette. She produced and performed holiday specials for NPR—"Christmas at Rainbow Corner," a celebration of the songs of WWII, and "Her Funny Valentine," a love letter to lyricist Lorenz Hart. Listen to Ivy sing.
At age sixteen, Ivy Austin began her career as Nanette in "No, No, Nanette" in summer stock at the Gateway Playhouse. During semester breaks from the High School of Performing Arts and Colgate University, Ivy performed in dinner theatres and traveled with a national tour of the musical "Hair" singing, "I Met a Boy Called Frank Mills." After graduating from Colgate with a degree in Biology, she toured with "They're Playing Our Song," then moved to Hollywood for "Grease 2," and "High Strung." She created the role of a boneless rag dolly in a Joe Raposo/William Gibson musical directed by Patricia Birch. The production made history in the Soviet Union in 1986, marking the renewal of cultural relations between our countries. Click here to watch the documentary, "Rag Dolly In the USSR". Ivy returned to the U.S. to find herself on the front pages of The Daily News and The Economist, and the subject of many news articles and talk shows. Later that year, "Raggedy Ann" opened in New York at The Nederlander Theatre, where Ivy Austin made her Broadway debut in the title role.
Following her Broadway engagement, Ms. Austin assembled a long list of credits at Lincoln Center as a member of the New York City Opera under the artistic direction of Beverly Sills—"Naughty Marietta," "The Merry Widow," "The Music Man," "The New Moon," "The Desert Song," "South Pacific," and Harold Prince's productions of "Candide" and "Sweeney Todd," where she portrayed The Beggar Woman. She starred in "Radio Rhapsody," conducted by Marin Alsop at Alice Tully Hall, and appeared in "Live From Lincoln Center," broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera House. Ms. Austin has performed at The Mark Taper Forum—"An Evening with Noel Coward," The Kennedy Center—"Let Freedom Sing," Merkin Hall—"50th Anniversary Celebration," Town Hall—"Sweet Adeline," "Love and Hard Times," "National Lampoon Radio Hour," City Center—"10th Anniversary of The Coffee Club Orchestra," and made her Carnegie Hall debut in "Ira Gershwin—the Art of the Lyricist," curated by Robert Kimball. She was invited by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to sing at the Gershwin Symposium for the Library of Congress.
The list continues with Billy Barnes' "Blame It On The Movies" on Broadway, The Actor's Company Theatre productions of "Rhinocerous" and "The Beauty Part," Cy Coleman's "Courtroom Cantata," Melissa Manchester's "I Sent a Letter To My Love," and the original "Personals" with Jason Alexander. She has been on stage at the 92nd Street Y as both performer and host in "Lyrics & Lyricists" evenings celebrating The Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern & Dorothy Fields, "Broadway to Hollywood" and "Broadway Swings." She was a frequent performer at The New York Historical Society in musical evenings featuring songs by Hammerstein & Hart, DeSylva Brown & Henderson, Dietz & Schwartz, and Irving Berlin. She performed musical theatre repertoire and narrated "Peter & the Wolf" with the Queens Symphony Orchestra, was a guest artist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, and performed numerous concerts at The Century in honor of the great songwriters Burton Lane, Jule Styne, Comden & Green, Johnny Mercer, Noel Coward, and Vernon Duke, under the artistic direction of Broadway historian Max Wilk. Visit Ivy's Performer page.
Ivy Austin created, wrote, produced, and hosted eight seasons of musical shows in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center: "Women in Cabaret," "Women on Broadway," "The Tony Awards—50 Years of Broadway's Best Musicals," "The Men I Love: A Centennial Salute to Ira Gershwin and George Gershwin," "Happy Birthday New York!—A Musical Tribute to the City's Centennial," "The Great Songwriters of Hollywood," "Songs from Shubert Stages—a Centennial Celebration of the Shubert Organization,"and "Spring Fling." Visit Ivy's Producer page.
Ms. Austin created the voice of a Lantuch for an animated feature film, "Aaron's Magic Village" with a musical score by Sheldon Harnick and Michel Legrand. Her voice has been featured on commercials, and cartoons including "The Charmkins," "Peter Pan," Steven Spielberg's "Animaniacs," and HBO's "Peter Rabbit. She has recorded over one hundred songs with The Muppets on " Sesame Street." Her characters include Cereal Girl, Gloria Esteworm, Hammy Swinette, Sublime Miss M, and Soo-ey Oinker of The Oinker Sisters--the voice on the international hit song, "I Got a New Way to Walk." She is heard on numerous cast albums, CDs, and videos. Look at Ivy's Sesame Street Videos.
Ms. Austin performed regularly at Symphony Space in WNYC broadcasts of "Selected 
Shorts" and "Bloomsday," and participated in years of "Wall-to-Wall" music marathons celebrating songwriters Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Weill, Frank Loesser, Joni Mitchell, Richard Rodgers, and Stephen Sondheim. She sang the Guys & Dolls classic, "Adelaide's Lament" in "Wall-to-Wall Broadway." Ivy was a member of the Night Kitchen Radio Theater, acting in radio dramas on XM Radio. She spent nine seasons as a contributing writer and performer in the “Thalia Follies,” a political satire on New York’s Upper West Side. Visit Ivy’s Writer page.
Ivy shared the stage with Soledad O’Brien and Lily Tomlin in the All-Star cast of, “In Your Face-New York!” performed Live at Symphony Space. Visit inyourfaceny.org to watch or listen to Ivy in additional episodes hosted by Patricia Marx, Sarah 
Jones, and Roz Chast performed Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse.
In the hilarious “Dames Like Us” at The Cornelia Street Cafe, Ivy appeared in multiple roles. And now, she creates a host of new comedic characters each month along with the Cavalcade of Stars on “The Hickory Bench Playhouse,” a musical and sketch-comedy podcast available on iHeartRadio radio, and at hickorybenchplayhouse.libsyn.com 
Ivy continues her affiliation with Broadway Producers Jack W. Batman and Bruce Robert Harris at SunnySpot Productions as Associate Producer, and Director of SunnySpot Celebrations, the company’s Broadway Events division. See Ivy’s Producer page. She has produced star-studded opening night parties, concert series, customized Broadway celebrations, and presented readings of several new works including, “Miss Valentine,” which will be given a full production at Wells College in Aurora, NY in 2020. Ivy is a proud graduate of Tom Viertel’s Fourteen-Week Producers Program at the Commercial Theatre Institute.
In February of 2019, Ivy joined Lucie Arnaz, Robert Klein, and original members of the cast of “They’re Playing Our Song” on Broadway at The Music Box Theatre. It was standing room only for the The Actors Fund 40th Anniversary Concert of the 1979 Broadway hit by Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, and Carole Bayer Sager, conducted by Larry Blank.
In August of 2019, Ivy was invited by Craig Shemin, President of The Jim Henson Legacy, to
join Christopher Cerf and Paul 
Rudolph on a panel called, “Sing: The Music of Sesame Street,”
a celebration of 50 years of musical performances on Sesame Street, at the Museum of the
Moving Image.
While straddling the footlights as both performer and producer, Ivy completed a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy. Using a holistic, systems approach, Ivy has counseled individuals, couples, and families at Family Services of Westchester and The Relationship Suite, and recently joined the team at Metropolitan Center for Mental Health in Manhattan.
