Marian Anderson
Personal Information
Born: 1897
Died: 1993
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
Completed high school
""When I finally walked onto the stage of Constitution Hall, I felt no different than I had in other halls. There was no sense of triumph. I felt that it was a beautiful concert hall and I was very happy to sing there." (wikipedia.org); "I became aware for the first time that there were two ways of doing it [singing]. One was absolutely natural and one was one that I had to think about. But I know if you're going to do anything, you have to know how you're going to do it and why you're doing it that way." (npr.org); “I could not run away from the situation. I had become, whether I liked it or not, a symbol, representing my people. I had to appear.” (marian-anderson.com); "
— Marian Anderson
Professional Life
Field of Study: Singer
Institution/Corporation: None found
Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degrees: was awarded 24 including Howard University, Temple University, & Smith College; Member: Baptists' Young Peoples Union, Camp Fire Girls, UN Human Rights Committee, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Board of Danbury Music Center, NAACP
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1939 NAACP Spingarn Medal; 1963 Presidential Medal of Freedom; 1973 University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit; 1973 National Women's Hall of Fame; 1977 United Nations Peace Prize; 1977 New York City's Handel Medallion; 1977: Congressional Gold Medal; 1978 Kennedy Center Honors; 1980 United States Treasury Department Gold Commemorative Medal; 1984 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award of the City of New York; 1986 National Medal of Arts; 1991 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; 1929 Rosenwald Fellowship; 1981 George Peabody Medal; 1998 American Classical Music Hall of Fame;
Achievements: with the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the Lincoln Memorial steps in the capital; January 7, 1955, became the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera; worked as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United States Department of State, giving concerts all over the world; 1957 published her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning; was deemed one of the finest contraltos of her time;
was an important figure in the struggle for African American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century
1939 during the period of racial segregation, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
1957 sang for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration
January 20, 1961, she sang for President John F. Kennedy's inauguration
1963, she sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
1965, she christened the nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine USS George Washington Carver
1963 released an album, Snoopycat: The Adventures of Marian Anderson's Cat Snoopy, which included short stories and songs about her beloved black cat
was nickname "Baby Contralto" when singing in her church choir
Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest because they refused Anderson permission to sing at Constitution Hall
composer Jean Sibelius spoke glowingly of her voice and dedicated the song "Solitude" to her
in 1935 became known as “the voice of a century”
was a very private person
began singing at age 3 & joined her church choir at age 6
age 10 joined the People's Chorus of Philadelphia
1923 was the first African-American signed at the Victor Company & did 2 recordings
1925 won the NY Philharmonic singing contest
1928 gave her first concert at Carnegie Hall
1937 Albert Einstein hosted her when she was denied a hotel room while performing at Princeton & hosted her numerous other times until his death in 1955
during WWII & the Korean War entertained troops in hospitals & at bases
retired from singing in 1965
her father bought her a piano when she was 8 & she taught herself to play
at 15 her church took up a collection to pay for her first singing lessons
1943 started the Marian Anderson Awards
because of race issues her early career success was in Europe during the 1930s