Acclaimed Vocalist to Perform After Mount Sinai Saves His Life—and Voice—From Cancer

Updated on Jun 13, 2024 | Cancer, Featured, Head and Neck, Patient Stories

Johannes Schwaiger, Mount Sinai patient and Broadway musician, with fellow Broadway musician and wife Tessa Lang

About a decade ago, Broadway musician Johannes Schwaiger noticed a hoarseness in his voice, which he initially dismissed as allergies. A visit to a doctor that spring identified the real culprit—a tumor in the back of his throat. The subsequent care Mr. Schwaiger received at Mount Sinai, which included minimally invasive surgery and voice therapy, saved both his life and his voice.

“Now, thinking back, 11 years ago, I am completely cancer free and have followed my passion of music, in my case, singing, with a newfound purpose—to bring people together, and find those things that unite us,” he says.

On Thursday, June 6, the singer, who has performed on Broadway, including in Cats, will tell his story—one about “all kinds of love”—in a performance titled “All the Love in the World,” at the Kaufman Music Center in New York City. Mr. Schwaiger will perform alongside his wife, fellow Broadway musician Tessa Lang, who encouraged him to see a doctor when he began experiencing symptoms and stayed by his side through cancer treatment and his journey back to health.

“She is my angel,” says Mr. Schwaiger, explaining that his ordeal with cancer was also hers. On stage, the couple will tell their story of love, hope, and survival through a selection of American, French, and Italian love songs.

“We’ve woven a tapestry of all the ways people love, and the journey that love takes, the highs and the lows, and the pursuit of love, no matter what the journey is,” says Ms. Lang of their upcoming performance.

For the couple, the journey began when Mr. Schwaiger received a diagnosis of stage IV head and neck cancer in 2013, and his worst fear—losing his voice—became a real possibility. “I underwent a CT scan, and the results were devastating,” he remembers.

Many patients who undergo surgery for head and neck tumors need a tracheotomy, a surgical opening in the neck that allows them to breathe through a tube.

“I walked around in a daze between disbelief and realty,” recalls Mr. Schwaiger.

The musician began singing at the age of nine in Munich, Germany, his hometown, and his international career went on to span operas, oratorios, concerts, and musical theater. The possibility of losing his voice “felt like losing my life,” he says.

The diagnosis also came as a shock to Ms. Lang. “Johannes was just so healthy, he grew up on a farm. There was never anything wrong with him, so that’s why this was just so unusual,” she says.

Mr. Schwaiger’s doctor referred him to Mount Sinai, where doctors performed laser surgery, a minimally invasive procedure, removing about 85 percent of the tumor without harming the surrounding tissue, eliminating any need for a tracheotomy. After the surgery, he underwent chemotherapy and radiation to remove the remaining cancer, which was provided under the expertise of his oncology team at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai.

“What I so much loved about Mount Sinai is they didn’t proclaim doomsday,” he recalls. “They said, ‘You have a good chance of healing, and that’s what we are going to do.’”

While the treatment cured him, the radiation to his throat made speaking and swallowing difficult, and Mr. Schwaiger’s voice was again in jeopardy. However, with guidance from Cathy Lazarus, PhD, Associate Professor, Otolaryngology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, he was able to keep his voice—and his career. In her research and clinical practice, Dr. Lazarus specializes in restoring function in head and neck cancer patients.

“It was tremendously helpful,” he says, adding that the therapy also helped him regain his ability to swallow and eat normally.

Mr. Schwaiger, who teaches at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, describes the care he received from Mount Sinai as “divine intervention.” In 2015, he shared his story with fellow cancer survivors at a luncheon at Mount Sinai-Union Square. To show his appreciation for all who helped him during his ordeal, he decided to tell his story through a series of songs, which were “all about healing,” he says.

“I started to look at my voice from a different lens and found a new purpose within,” he says.

It is a new purpose Mr. Schwaiger will convey when he takes the stage with Ms. Lang for the All the Love in the World concert this June.

“This concert is a testament to the journey I walked through and the love that endured and helped me to overcome and heal,” he says.