Eva Gustavson

Eva Gustavson (18 February 1917 — 10 February 2009), sometimes known as Eva Gustafson, was a Norwegian-American contralto who had an active international performance career in operas and concerts during the 1940s and 1950s. She later embarked on a second career as a voice teacher in the United States, notably teaching for many years on the music faculty of the University of Southern California.

Eva Gustavson was born in Horten on the Oslo Fjord, in Norway. Her father, Oscar Gustavson, was a violinist-conductor at the National Theatre and later at Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra; her mother, Margit Gustavson (née Schwartz), played the piano and was an organist. Eva studied singing and dancing in her youth, becoming an accomplished tap-dancer, acrobat, and musician. She joined a traveling cabaret troupe in her late teens but was later advised to quit in order to pursue a career as an opera singer. She studied singing in Oslo with Bokken Lasson, Soffi Schønning and Signe Amundsen. During the early part of World War II, she entered the School in neutral Sweden on a scholarship where she studied under Adelaide von Skilondz. She was also mentored during this time by Kirsten Flagstad. She became separated from her family for the duration of much of the war, as they were stranded by the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. After the War, Gustavson continued with further studies in Milan, Italy under the advice of Flagstad.

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