[1] Born in Venjan, Sweden, Kerstin Thorborg studied singing at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm.
The famed conductor Bruno Walter (1876–1962) engaged her for the Städtische Oper in Berlin and became her mentor.
[2] Although a contralto, Thorborg's upper register was so secure that she sang numerous mezzo-soprano roles, including Venus, Kundry, Fricka, Waltraute, and Magdalena.
She also appears to wonderful advantage in the live recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, with Charles Kullmann (1903–1983) under Bruno Walter, at the Vienna Musikverein in 1936 and the even more famous one with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Carl Schuricht (1880–1967) in 1939.
[3] In 1938, to escape the Nazis, she made her home in the United States, singing various roles at the Metropolitan Opera.