Franz Schubert’s masterwork song cycle, Die Winterreise (Winter’s Journey) will be performed on Sunday, April 7th at 3pm in the Buckley Center Auditorium. World famous accompanist and Professor Emeritus of the University of Illinois, John Wustman, will join new Asst. Professor Nicole Leupp Hanig in performing the set of twenty-four songs with texts by German Romantic poet Wilhelm Müller. Associate Professor of German, Laura McLary, will begin the afternoon’s concert with insights on Müller’s poetry, which speaks of one who is cast out and forced to wander, unable to find journey’s end.
John Wustman’s professional musical career began in the 50’s with Robert Shaw and went on to include appearances in the leading concert halls of five continents with some of the greatest singers from the second half of this century. His lengthiest associations were with singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Birgit Nilsson, Régine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, Carlo Bergonzi and a twenty-five year collaboration with Luciano Pavarotti . On January 31, 1997, Wustman completed a six-year series of recitals celebrating the 200th anniversary of Franz Schubert’s birth. This “labor of love”, as Wustman terms it, featured performances of each of the Viennese master’s 598 songs. Nicole Leupp Hanig is honored that her mentor will accompany her in performance of Die Winterreise at University of Portland.