After months of practice, two Trinity professor-musicians performed the second cycle of Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” (Winter’s Journey) in Ruth Taylor Recital Hall on Jan. 25. 

Over the course of a year, Christopher Rodriguez, visiting assistant professor of vocal studies at Emory University, and Zachary Ridgway, professor of music at Trinity, are playing all three cycles of Schubert. This cycle featured all twenty-four songs of Schubert’s historic 1827 song cycle, set to poems by Wilhelm Müller. 

Rodriguez, a baritone, described “Winterreise” as the tale of a man traveling through a frosty winter landscape after a failed romance, confronting loneliness, memory and despair along the way.

“It is a literal journey of fighting through winter, like some of the things we’ve seen this weekend in San Antonio,” Rodriguez said. “But it’s also this idea of scorned and lost love, ending eerily quiet, rather than in a big bang.” 

For Ridgway, a pianist, performing “Winterreise” has been a dream since he was 16. Rodriguez, however, said he studied Schubert’s earlier cycle “Die schöne Müllerin” in his doctoral program, but only recently had the chance to perform it with Ridgway. 

The two committed to work through Schubert’s major cycles together. These works are rarely performed in full because of their length and technical demands, but the pair said they were determined to take on the challenge.

Rodriguez noted the importance of embodying the poetry’s nuance, even for audiences unfamiliar with German. The performers focused on conveying the cycle’s emotional arc through sound and expression.

“What makes it so intimate is being able to really understand these words,” Rodriguez said. “Yes, they are in German, but you don’t need to be able to understand German to have the sound wash over you.”

Owen Duggan, baritone and music director at Northwood Presbyterian Church, attended to support his fellow musicians. It was a great opportunity to hear artists of that caliber perform live,   he said.

Isabel Elsisi, senior English and sociology double-major, said she came to support Rodriguez, her former voice teacher. “This song cycle is all about the poetry. It’s really beautiful,” Elsisi said.

According to Rodriguez and Ridgway, this is their year of Schubert. They performed the first cycle, “Die schöne Müller,” last May and plan to return to perform the final cycle, “Schwanengesang,” on May 2.

*This article was updated Feb. 4, 2026.