Schubert’s Die Winterreise with William Schimmel

I lost my voice street performing in Edinburgh a while back and found a voice therapist named David Fairchild. Fairchild introduced me to the songs of Franz Schubert. I immediately took to them. He got excited because none of his students were interested in these. Fairchild was also a fan of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who performed these songs written by Schubert. Fischer-Dieskau’s ex-wife, Christina, lived in the apartment that David rented as a vocal studio. Every once in a while, she would peek her head through the door and smile.
William Schimmel played on Frank’s Wild Years and Rain Dogs, the former being one impetus of my accordion playing. We met at an accordion seminar where he gave a lecture on accompanying vocalists. He mentioned Gerald Moore, who accompanied Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Moore and Fischer-Dieskau put out albums of Franz Schubert’s love songs, including the song cycle Die Winterreise.
We both loved this work, so we performed selections from it together at his accordion seminars in 2013 and 2014. He recorded those performances. I continue to work on being a better singer, especially on these songs.