Wustman's New York years read like a veritable history of singers and singing. He was pianist for the rehearsals of the American Opera Society's production of Bellini's Il Pirata in Carnegie Hall in 1959, featuring Maria Callas. Later, Mr. Wustman served with Callas as a member of the jury at the Fourth International Tschaikowsky Competition in Moscow. During this time he travelled abroad under the aegis of the Fulbright Commission and also the United States State Department, teaching master classes in German Lieder in Uruguay, Peru and Argentina. He has concertized in the leading concert halls of five continents with singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Birgit Nilsson, Regine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, Carlo Bergonzi, and Luciano Pavarotti.
Highlights from his brilliant career include a series of televised recitals with Pavarotti, including the first recital from the Metropolitan Opera House in 1978. His recording of Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff songs with Irina Arkhipova won the Grand Prix du Disque. Other recordings include song recitals with Regine Crespin, Carlo Bergonzi, Brigitte Fassbaender and the Live from Carnegie Hall recital with Luciano Pavarotti.
Since 1968, Mr. Wustman has been Professor of Music at the University of Illinois where he founded the vocal coaching and accompanying program in 1973. An example of his work at the University was completed on January 31, 1997, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Schubert: a six-year series of recitals, presenting the complete songs of Schubert. In addition, since 1985, he has held a two-week, intensive summer course for singers and pianists at Valparaiso University, focusing on vocal repertoire. Recently, John Wustman was made a member of the University of Illinois' Centre for Advanced Study, the highest attainable honor for a faculty member.
His students are engaged as singers, conductors and repetiteurs at the Metropolitan Opera Company, Houston Grand, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric, Munich Staatsoper and La Scala.