Marian Anderson
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The first black American, who made name in the world of classical music, was the tenor Roland Hayes. His first appearance was in New York, in 1917, at an age of 30-year. His first appearance in Europa was in 1920, in London. Just about 1930 came Marian Anderson as the first prominent female black-singer. Other "Black Divas" have come before Anderson: Elizabeth Taylor-Greenfield (known as 'The Black Swan'), Mrs. Sampson Williams ('Marie Selika'), and Sissieretta Jones ('Black Patti'); none, however, was able to break through the glass ceiling of race and obtain more than modest notoriety. Marian Anderson, a woman with a pleasing plainness and dignity, with an extreme remarkable voice, which actual consists of two separate voices - an abyss low contralto, and a dramatic soprano - and with a serious and a profound musicality. |
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Contralto Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A variety of sources (Marian herself ?) suggested February 17, 1902, as her birth date; however, Anderson's birth certificate, released after her death, listed the date as February 27, 1897. Her father was an ice and coal salesman, and her mother was a former teacher. Although Anderson had early showed an interest in the violin, she eventually focused on singing. The Black community, recognising her talent, gave her financial and moral support. She also gained the notice of tenor Roland Hayes, who provided guidance in her developing career. She first began to sing in the choir of the Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia, learning all the parts from soprano to bass, a factor that helped inadvertently to develop her extraordinary range. Not until she was 15 did she have her first formal lesson. Then the congregation of her church established a Marian Anderson fund to enable her to have regular and thorough training. In 1925 she won a contest in New York, and her prize was an appearance at Lewisohn Stadium with the New York Philharmonic. She was put under contract by a concert manager, but over the next few years her career came almost to a standstill, and she decided that in spite of the financial problems involved she must go to Europe to perfect her Lieder style.
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Marian Anderson died in Portland, Oregon, on 8th April, 1993. |
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(p) 2007 Dutch Divas |
She sang her first European concert in Berlin
in 1930 and followed that with an enormously successful Scandinavian
tour, in the course of which she sang for Jean Sibelius, who
humbly declared, "My roof is too low for you". In August
1935 she capped a sensational two-year circuit of Europe with
a recital in Salzburg. "A voice like yours is heard once
in a hundred years!" said Arturo Toscanini when he was introduced
to her. Miss Anderson's Town Hall recital on December 30, 1935
- presented by Hurok, who had heard her in Paris - was a triumph.
"Marian Anderson has returned to her native land, one of
the great singers of our time" wrote Howard Taubman in The
New York Times. She was then in demand from coast to coast as
well as abroad. In 1938 she gave 70 recitals in the United States
alone - then the longest, most intense tour in concert history
for any singer. The following year she became an international
symbol of the Negro's struggle for equality when, denied the
use of Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., by its owner, the
Daughters of the American Revolution, she sang from the steps
of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday for an incredible audience
of 75,000.
In 1949 the contralto resumed concertising in Europe and in the
50th added South America, Japan and Israel to her itineraries.
On January 7, 1955, Marian Anderson made her Metropolitan Opera
debut as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera - the first of her race
to sing a leading role at the Met. The fall of 1957 found her
on a 10-week tour of India and the Far East under the auspices
of the U.S. State Department. Received as an ambassadress by
heads of state and by the ordinary people as a great artist and
human being, Miss Anderson travelled 39.000 miles, giving 24
concerts in 14 countries. She was accompanied by an audio-video
team whose pictorial record was turned into a television program
by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly called "The Lady
from Philadelphia:' "We made that documentary in the 'See
It Now' Series:' wrote Murrow, "because we wanted the American
people to know what one woman had accomplished in the field of
human communications." The following year President Eisenhower
appointed Miss Anderson U.S. delegate on the Human Rights Committee
of the United Nations. She sang at President John F. Kennedy's
Inauguration in January 1961, and at Christmas made a special
flight to Berlin to sing for the American Armed Forces. In May
1962 she concertised in Australia for the first time. Her farewell
tour began in Constitution Hall in October 1964, included the
major cities of four continents and ended on April 18,1965, Easter
Sunday, in Carnegie Hall. "There have been a considerable
number of times when my mind has been forced to consider Marian
Anderson not only as a contralto and musician, not only as an
artist and patriot, not only as a supreme example of what we
are on earth to prove (the American dream), but also as something
which has nothing to do with the United States or the American
dream," wrote Vincent Sheean. "It is the reality and
the imperious exigence of the soul. Marian is a sort of proof
of the immortality of the soul, or, if that is too extreme, of
the existence of the soul to which an immortality may be postulated."
Marian Anderson
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