She was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.
Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century.
Background
The conductor Arturo Toscanini said that Anderson had "a voice heard once in a hundred years." She was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 27, 1897. She sang in the Union Baptist Church junior choir when she was six years old. In her second year in high school she attracted the attention of John Thomas Butler, distinguished black actor, who sent her to Mary S. Patterson for serious vocal training. Shortly thereafter the Philadelphia Choral Society arranged for her to study with Agnes Reifsnyder, leading contralto. Later she was instructed by Giuseppe Boghetti. In 1925 she won a contest to sing at Lewisohn Stadium in New York City. Despite a triumph, she experienced difficulty in securing engagements because of her race. She consequently went to Europe, where she established herself as a leading contralto. She sang for Sibelius, who later dedicated his song Solitude to her. In 1935 she began her successful American tour with a concert in Town Hall, New York. In 1936 she sang in the White House, and in 1939, when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to permit her to sing in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior, arranged for her to sing from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where more than 75,000 gathered to hear her. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1955, becoming the first black singer ever to sing with the company. Her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, appeared in 1956. In 1957 she made a singing tour of the Far East sponsored by the United Nations and in 1958 was named delegate to the UN by President Eisenhower. As an official guest, she sang The Star-Spangled Banner at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Anderson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. In 1964, following a series of farewell concerts, she retired from the music world. In 1978 she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor for a lifetime of achievement. She died Apr. 8, 1993, in Portland, Ore.
Education
Her family, however, could not afford to send her to high school, nor could they pay for any music lessons. Still, Marian continued to perform wherever she could and learn from anyone who was willing to teach her. Throughout her teenage years, Marian remained active in her church's musical activities, now heavily involved in the adult choir. She joined the Baptists' Young People's Union and the Camp Fire Girls which provided her with some limited musical opportunities. Eventually the directors of the People's Chorus and the pastor of her church, Reverend Wesley Parks, along with other leaders of the black community, banded together to help Marian. They raised the money she needed to get singing lessons with Mary S. Patterson and to attend South Philadelphia High School, from which she graduated in 1921.
After high school, Marian applied to an all-white music school, the Philadelphia Music Academy (now University of the Arts), 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. Undaunted, Anderson pursued studies privately with Giuseppe Boghetti and Agnes Reifsnyder in her native city through the continued support of the Philadelphia black community. She met Boghetti through the principal of her high school. Marian auditioned for him singing 'Deep River' and he was immediately brought to tears.
Career
In 1925 Anderson got her first big break when she won first prize in a singing competition sponsored by the New York Philharmonic. As the winner she got to perform in concert with the orchestra on August 26, 1925, a performance that scored immediate success with both audience and music critics. Anderson remained in New York to pursue further studies with Frank La Forge. During the time Arthur Judson, whom she had met through the NYP, became her manager. Over the next several years, she made a number of concert appearances in the United States, but racial prejudice prevented her career from gaining much momentum. In 1928, she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall. Eventually she decided to go to Europe where she spent a number of months studying with Sara Charles-Cahier before launching a highly successful European singing tour.
In 1930, Anderson made her European debut in a concert at Wigmore Hall in London, where she was received enthusiastically. She spent the early 1930s touring throughout Europe where she did not encounter the racial prejudices she had experienced in America. In the summer of 1930, she went to Scandinavia, where she met the Finnish pianist Kosti Vehanen who became her regular accompanist and her vocal coach for many years.
Anderson worked for several years as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and as a "goodwill ambassadress" for the United States Department of State, giving concerts all over the world. She participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Anderson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.