Featuring Chicago’s Frederick Schauwecker, Pianist with Tenor Jussi Björling

The Met’s Opera News magazine featured many articles about Jussi Björling during his career in the USA, mostly highlighting his operatic exploits but occasionally acknowledging his concert career in North America. From September 1945 until Jussi’s last North American concert (Santa Monica in April 1960), his main accompanist was Frederick Schauwecker. Luckily someone at Opera News had the good idea, a decade after Jussi’s death, to arrange an interview with him. The result was a 2-page article “On the Road with Jussi,” with interesting information on how this tenor and accompanist decided to join forces, how they worked together and to what extent “Freddie” interacted with Jussi’s family. Schauwecker’s candid answers here have been used in many subsequent articles, especially in the biography Jussi where they help buttress the narrative.