- Profession: Soprano.
- Relation to Mahler: Worked with Gustav Mahler.
- Correspondence with Mahler:
- Born: 03-08-1881 Arhus, Danmark.
- Died: 10-07-1960 Blue Hill, Maine, America.
- Buried: Unknown.
Also: Paula Frijsh, Paula Frisch.
She studied piano and theory in Copenhagen with O. Christensen, later voice in Paris with Jean Périer. She made her debut in Paris at the age of 19; appeared in concert and recital in Paris and briefly in opera in Copenhagen; made her American debut in 1915.
Paula Frisch (she later changed the spelling of her last name), was born in Denmark in 1881, the daughter of a physician. She first studied piano and musical theory at the Copenhagen Conservatory before going on to study singing with Jean Périer and Sarah de Lalande in Paris. She toured thought Europe and the United States and was often accompanied by pianist Alfred Cortot. Ms. Frijsh occasionally appeared on the operatic stage and during World War I she gained popularity for singing for the French soldiers.
In 1940 she came to New York City where she taught at Juilliard and continued to perform and was widely recognized as a master in the art of expression and for the delicate feeling she had for style, and was particularly famous as an interpreter of French songs. As she reveals in a interview, in her conception of the art song, the singer serves the composer and the poet, and not they the singer, and that those with too opulent a voice often fail to properly interpret a composer’s work.