Broadway vocal coach dies after Manhattan attack

NEW YORK - BREAKING UPDATE: An 87-year-old singing coach died Tuesday of head injuries from being shoved to the ground on a New York City street, police said while searching for a suspect in what a top official called "an unprovoked, senseless attack." 

Barbara Maier Gustern, who had worked with performers on Broadway and beyond, hit her head and was critically injured in the attack Thursday night. Her family and the NYPD confirmed her death on Tuesday. 

Blondie's Debbie Harry — perhaps Gustern's most famous pupil — said Gustern loved her students and had a "heart of gold."

"Barbara Maier Gustern loved her life and gave that same love to all her students. As a vocal coach to thousands over the years, her generosity is legendary and in spite of difficult times in her life she was generous to us all," Harry said. "What a tragedy for the city of New York. We've lost a truly dynamic woman with a heart of gold."

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Singer Barbara Bleier describes voice coach Barbara Maier Gustern, her friend and colleague, as one of the most "vibrant and alive people" she has ever known.

In interviews with FOX 5 News, friends and colleagues said Gusten, 87, had boundless energy. In fact, she is someone who walked down the 17 flights of stairs in her apartment building on a daily basis, according to Bleier.

That image is hard to reconcile with the image of Gustern now— unconscious and in the hospital, after a seemingly random attack.

"She said, 'I've never been hit so hard in my life.' And she was bleeding profusely from the head."

Gustern and Bleier had just finished a rehearsal in Gustern's Chelsea apartment Thursday evening. Gustern was heading out on foot to see a performance at Joe's Pub. She was walking east on 28th Street near 8th Avenue when police say a woman with long dark hair and light complexion pushed her.  

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Gustern fell and hit her head. She was lucid for just a few minutes. A good Samaritan helped her walk back to her building lobby, where Bleier was still waiting for a rideshare home. They called EMS, but by the time she arrived at the hospital, she was unconscious.

"She suffered traumatic damage to the left side of her brain," grandson AJ Gustern wrote on her Facebook page. She remains intubated.

"Should she awaken, she will most likely suffer speech problems and may be unable to move her right side," AJ wrote. 

Bleier sent a voice memo to AJ Monday so that he could play it at Gustern's bedside, a way to let her know "that my husband and I loved her very much."

"There is a little ray of hope that some miracle will happen," Bleier said. 

"But, you know, I felt like that was a goodbye call."

Gustern is a renowned vocal coach, having worked with Blondie's Debbie Harry. She is also a sought-after instructor for some of Broadway's best, having worked with the cast of the 2019 revival of "Oklahoma!"

Nathan Koci was the show's music director.

"Barbara is someone who really, I think, helps everyone sound exactly like themselves in the most healthy way possible," Koci said.  "In our show, we worked with so many different kinds of actors and different kinds of singers and different kinds of voices and people who came from different backgrounds. And Barbara is just so good at offering her bottomless well of craft to anybody who wants it."

Both Koci and Bleier had a similar message for not just the residents of New York City, who are increasingly finding themselves the subject of random attacks, but the world at large.

"I think I can say on Barbara's behalf--because we've talked about this so much-- that this climate of hatred that is infusing our country in the world right now and for the past five or six years, we just want to see that stop. We want to see that stop. You know, people need to accept and care for one another."

"The state of humanity kind of gives you gratitude for the parts that don't feel that way," Koci said, encouraging everyone to avoid "dipping into" the kind of senselessness that was going through the suspect's head last Thursday.

"We need [Barbara]," Koci added. "So many people need her... She's got a lot of people rooting for her."

Bleier said the show she was rehearsing with Gustern the night of the attack will still go on, even if Gustern cannot be there. But they plan to turn it into a charity cabaret, benefiting an organization close to Gustern's heart.

It'll take place at Don't Tell Mama in Hell's Kitchen, March 27 and April 3.