The Viennese-born contralto Gertrud Burgsthaler-Schuster (1916—2004) studied at the Staatsakademie für Musik from 1935 to 1938. At the age of twenty she married an Army officer Hugo Burgsthaler (who was later killed in 1944 in Normandy). From 1945 to 1950 she was under contract to the Vienna State Opera. Later she appeared under her maiden name Gertrude Schuster. With this company she made 362 appearances in some 28 rôles which included Kundry (Parsifal) and Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus). In 1950 she married Dr Horst Granzner (who died in 1998). From 1951 to 1965 Gertrud Burgsthaler-Schuster was engaged at the Linz Landestheater where she appeared in sixty rôles. From 1963 to 1980 she taught singing at the Bruckner Konservatorium, where she was awarded the title Professor in 1976. In 1998 she returned to Vienna, where she died in 2004.