Marian Anderson - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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Marian Anderson

photo by Carl Van Vechten, 1940

Background information

Born February 27, 1897

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Died April 8, 1993Portland, Oregon, USA

Genre(s) Opera, spiritual

Occupation(s) VocalistLabel(s) RCA, Sony

Marian Anderson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 April 8, 1993)[1]

was an American contralto, perhaps best remembered forher performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the

Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She

oined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to

an all-white music school after her graduation from high

school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black.

The woman working the admissions counter replied, "We

don't take colored" when she tried to apply. Consequently,

she continued her singing studies with a private teacher.

She debuted with the New York Philharmonic on August

26, 1925 and scored an immediate success, also with the

critics. In 1928, she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall.

Her reputation was further advanced by her tour through

Europe in the early 1930s where she did not encounter

certain racial prejudices she had experienced in America.

The famed conductor

Arturo Toscanini told her

she had a voice "heard

once in a hundred years."In 1935 impresario Sol

Hurok took over as her

manager and was with her for the rest of her performing career.

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused

permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution

Hall. The District of Columbia Board of Education declined a request to use

the auditorium of a white public high school. As a result of the furore which

followed, thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor

Roosevelt, resigned.

At the suggestion of Walter White, then the executive secretary of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),

Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes organized an open air concert for

Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The concert, commencing

with a dignified and stirring rendition of "America" attracted a crowd of more

75,000 of all colours and was a sensation with a national radio audience.

In 1939, the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius made a new arrangement of the song Solitude and dedicated it to

Anderson. Originally The Jewish Girl's Songfrom his 1906 incidental music to "Belshazzar's Feast", this later

Anderson at the Department of

the Interior, commemorating

her 1939 concert


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became the Solitude section of the orchestral suite derived from the incidental music.[2][3]

In 1943, Anderson sang at the invitation of the DAR to an integrated audience at Constitution Hall as part of a

benefit for the American Red Cross. By contrast, the federal government continued to bar her from using the

high school auditorium in the District of Columbia.

On January 7, 1955, Anderson broke the color barrier by becoming the first African-American to perform with

the New York Metropolitan Opera. On that occasion, she sang the part of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo

in maschera.[4]

In 1958 she was officially designated delegate to the United Nations, a formalization of her role as "goodwill

ambassador" of the U.S. she played earlier, and in 1972 she was awarded the UN Peace Prize.

Later life

After an extensive farewell tour, she retired from singing in 1965. However,

she continued to appear publicly, narrating Aaron Copland'sLincoln Portrait,

including a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga in 1976,

conducted by the composer. Her achievements were recognized and honored

with many prizes, including the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978 and a

Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991.

In 1993, Anderson died of natural causes at age 96 in Portland, Oregon at the

home of her nephew, conductor James DePreist. She is interred at Eden

Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 1939 documentary film, Marian Anderson: the Lincoln Memorial Concertwas selected for preservation in

the United States National Film Registry.

On January 27, 2005, a commemorative U.S. postage stamp honored Marian Anderson as part of the BlackHeritage series. Anderson is also pictured on the US $5,000 Series I United States Savings Bond.

Anderson is a recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of

America.

See also

List of African American firsts

References

^ Marian Anderson always claimed she was born on 17 February 1902, however her birth certificate is reported to

give her birth date as 27 February 1897. (Women in History). Marian Anderson Biography

(http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/ande-mar.htm) . Lakewood Public Library. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.

1.

^ "Arrangements for voice and piano (http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/laulut_6.htm) ", The Finnish Club of

Helsinki. Retrieved on 2007-02-23.

2.

^ "Belshazzar's Feast (http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/ork_muita_belsazar.htm) ", The Finnish Club of

Helsinki. Retrieved on 2007-02-23.

3.

^ Randye Jones. Afrocentric Voices: Marian Anderson Biography (http://www.afrovoices.com/anderson.html) .4.


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AfroVoices.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.

External links

Marian Anderson Historical Society (http://www.mariananderson.org)

Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks (http://sonybmgmasterworks.com/artists/mariananderson/)

Freedman, Russell, The Voice that Challenged a Nation (Clarion Books, New York, 2004)

Sims, Janet L.An Annoted Bibliography and Discography (Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1981)Online exhibition (http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/anderson/index.html) University of

Pennsylvania Library, largest online collection of images, includes her papers, audio and film archives.

www.Marian-Anderson.org (http://www.marian-anderson.org) Metropolitan Opera, New York

Marian Anderson Historical Society (http://www.mariananderson.org)

Biography of Marian Anderson

(http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showIndividual&entitY_id=3688&sourc

Kennedy Center, Washington DC

Virtual Museum of History biography

(http://www.virtualology.com/virtualmuseumofhistory/hallofwomen/MARIANANDERSON.NET/)

FemBiography Marian Anderson

(http://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biographie/marian-anderson/)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Anderson"

Categories: 1898 births | 1993 deaths | African-American singers | Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters | American altos |

American female singers | Congressional Gold Medal recipients | George Peabody Medal winners | Grammy

Lifetime Achievement Award winners | Hollywood Walk of Fame | People from Philadelphia

This page was last modified 17:37, 9 March 2007.

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Marian Anderson - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia