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Liz Tauro describes standing on a balcony above the Bubble Bar in Amesbury, singing jazz standards and classic ballads while patrons look up occasionally between conversations. The setup suits her. She can test new phrasing, adjust a tempo or try a song she hasn’t performed before without the weight of a spotlight directly overhead.
“The pressure is really low up there,” Tauro (whose stage name is Liz Solange) told the Marblehead Independent. “I can feel like I can sing and try things out that I wouldn’t normally do.”
The 24-year-old Marblehead native works full time at Marblehead Bank and performs regularly around the North Shore. Her three-hour sets at the Bubble Bar include songs by Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Nicks, Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. She also sings once a month at an assisted living facility in Tewkesbury, where she performs for dementia patients on two memory care floors.
“After I start singing, you can see the light coming,” Tauro said.
One woman who doesn’t speak begins to cry every time Tauro sings “Summer Wind.” Another resident remembers her each visit and sings along to every song, recalling lyrics that otherwise remain out of reach.
From Disney princesses to theater stages
Tauro grew up watching Disney princess movies on VHS and copying the way characters would run, fall and cry in their dramatic moments. The one she returned to most was Sleeping Beauty.
Her backyard became an enchanted forest where she could lose herself in Aurora’s melodies.
“I just thought I was in there,” Tauro said. “It was so much fun.”
Those childhood games signaled something deeper. Tauro’s parents noticed their daughter’s elaborate musical productions with her younger sister Bridgette.
“They were so intricate and involved,” Tauro said. “They would always involve some sort of dance number musical type thing.“
Her parents enrolled her in theater programs, and she started learning songs at six or seven. By middle school, she was working with Adria Smith, her music teacher at the Marblehead Charter School, who taught her clarinet, piano and vocal precision.
“She’s probably the most talented musician I’ve ever met in my life,” Tauro said.
Smith exposed her to jazz standards and helped her understand how to prepare audition material. Tauro sang “Do-Re-Mi” from “The Sound of Music” at her first audition and won a role as a squirrel in “Narnia” at Theater in the Open in Salem.
Long before three-hour sets and ensemble concerts, Tauro was already singing for the town. As a high school student, she performed the national anthem at Memorial Day services at Waterside Cemetery, and she has continued to sing each year at the town’s veterans breakfast
She studied theater performance at Hofstra University, graduating in 2023. After college she returned to Marblehead, choosing to stay close to her grandmother, now 89, rather than move to New York with classmates.
“I wanted to spend as much time with her as I can,” Tauro said.
Building harmony with She Sings From Her Soul
She joined She Sings From Her Soul, an ensemble founded by her friend Ella Faria and Faria’s family friend in 2023. The group began with six singers from Newburyport and Lawrence performing musical theater songs alongside works by Carole King and Aretha Franklin. They received strong reviews at their first show and decided to continue.
Genesis Toledo, Liz Tauro and Janie Zaniboni perform “How Deep Is Your Love” during She Sings From Her Soul: the 70s, captured on video during the live performance.
Their first Christmas program in December 2023 featured a mix of upbeat and reflective holiday songs. Tauro sang “This Christmas” by Donny Hathaway, “O Holy Night” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The group has performed four shows together, including a 1970s-themed summer concert where everyone wore period outfits.
Tauro connects with songs more than specific artists. She heard Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham perform “Silver Springs” in a 1997 recording and immediately started learning it.
“That song is so heartbreaking and so beautiful,” she said.
She practices at home until the music sits in muscle memory, then focuses on the acting when she performs. Before singing “O Holy Night” this season, she thought about the lyrics describing a world in sin and error until hope arrived.
“That’s beautiful to think about,” Tauro said. “Anything that can make people become better, I think, ‘There’s a beautiful thing.’”
She learns harmony parts by recording her section during rehearsals, then listening on repeat during her commutes. When the group comes together and the harmonies lock into place, the effort becomes worthwhile.
“It’s very satisfying to me when I’m able to sing a harmony part among everyone else,” she said.
At the memory care facility, staff members have told her they struggle to find performers willing to visit. Tauro keeps returning because the residents respond. Others weep when certain songs begin.
“They’re all very nice,” Tauro said. “They always tell me to come back.”
Liz Tauro and Ella Faria perform “Happy Days Are Here Again” during Hope for the Holidays 2025, a She Sings From Her Soul concert, in a video recorded during the live performance.
Voice shaped by Garland and a household soundtrack
She still gets nervous before performances and sometimes dreams she’s been cast in a show she hasn’t rehearsed. But she knows the work behind each song.
Her mother, Terri Tauro, played Aerosmith, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Van Morrison through the house when she was growing up. Her mom knew every word to every song, and Liz Tauro inherited that habit. She keeps spreadsheets of songs she wants to try and writes down ideas when they surface while scrolling through social media.
“It’s not something that’s ever scared me,” she said of new songs. “It’s totally random all the time.”
Tauro describes her voice as warm and compares it to Judy Garland’s. She grew up watching “The Wizard of Oz” on VHS and insisted on wearing blue socks with her Dorothy costume for Halloween because that’s what the character wore in the film. Her mother argued it was white. They rewound the tape to check.
“Sure enough, blue socks,” Tauro said.
She wants audiences to leave performances feeling like time passed quickly, caught up in the experience rather than checking the clock. She doesn’t need every song to sound like the original recording. She mimics certain phrasing from Garland when she sings “Summer Wind,” originally recorded by Frank Sinatra.
“It’s not Frank Sinatra singing summer wind,” she said. “It’s Lizzy with the inspiration of Judy.“
