The following was provided to me by Cató Brink
Cató Brink, soprano
Born: 16 July 1925 in Rustenburg, Transvaal
Primary School: Rustenburg - wins a silver cup in an arts competition for girls under 16 while still only 8 years old.
Secondary School: Pietersburg, then Zeerust where she matriculated in 1942
She completed her studies at the Onderwys Kollege Heidelberg (Transvaal) in 1945. During the years 1946-51 she was a teacher at the Fakkelhoërskool (Forest Hill, Johannesburg) in Gymnastics, English, Music, and Health education.
As a young singer she won several gold medals in competitons in Johannesburg, as well as the Clarette Cup in Pretoria. She made her radio broadcast debut in 1947 for the SABC in Johannesburg. In 1951 she gave up her teaching career, and accepted a job as an office clerk at Polliacks in Johannesburg, to have more time available for the development of her singing voice, and soon obtained the UPLM (Performer's Licenciate of Music in Singing) at the South African University in Johannesburg through part-time studies.
In April 1955 she went to Vienna, where she studied privately for 8 months with Maria Hittorff. She enrolled at the Vienna Academy for Music, Opera, Lieder and Oratorium in February 1956, where she obtained the Reife Prüfung in June 1957.
She returned to South Africa in September 1957 and made several recordings with the South African Broadcasting Company, including a recording of Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder with the SABC Orchestra conducted by Edgar Cree (the first time these songs were performed in South Africa). In this year Cató toured the country for 6 months with accompanist Lourens Faul.
In 1958 Cató returned to Vienna, where she recorded Lieder (especially R Strauss, Cornelius, as well as Arnold van Wyk's Vier weemoedige liedjies) with Erik Werba for the SABC. From 1959 she made several recordings for the Südwestfunk with Maria Bergmann as accompanist. These included songs and Lieder by Mussorgsky, Hindemith, R Strauss, Cornelius and Gabriel Fauré. She also made radio broadcast recordings in Austria, Hilversum, Amsterdam and Brussels.
In 1959 she married Dr Peter Felsenstein (juris) - later known as Peter Brenner in Germany, at the Salzburger Festspiele, Osterfestspiele, England and USA as an opera director..
In 1960 she was appointed as a lyric soprano at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, where she performed a variety of leading roles. Amongst others, she regularly performed with Ivan Rebroff.
In 1969 she retired from the opera stage for the sake of her husband's flourishing career as an opera director. She continued to sing in Oratorio and Lieder recitals. Since 1974 her career has moved on to vocal teaching and coaching.
