Schumann-Heink, << SHOO mahn HYNK, >> Ernestine (1861-1936), was a greatly admired contralto. During her long and active career as an artist, she appeared in operas, oratorios, concerts, and even motion pictures and vaudeville. She made her debut in Graz, Austria, when she was 15, as contralto soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Schumann-Heink first sang in opera at Dresden in 1878. Her growing reputation earned her invitations to the Wagner festivals at Bayreuth, Germany, from 1896 to 1903 and in 1905 and 1906. She joined the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York in 1899 after an American debut in Chicago. Later, she toured extensively as an interpreter of lieder (German songs). Schumann-Heink was born near Prague, then in Austria-Hungary, now in the Czech Republic.
