Marian Anderson
(February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an American contralto and one of the
most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan Blyth said:
"Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty." 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. Although offered roles with many important European
opera companies, Anderson declined, as she had no training in acting. She
preferred to perform in concert and recital only. She did, however, perform
opera arias within her concerts and recitals. She made many recordings that
reflected her broad performance repertoire of everything from concert
literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals.
Between 1940 and 1965 the German-American pianist Franz Rupp was her permanent
accompanist.
Anderson became an
important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice
in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters
of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an
integrated audience in Constitution Hall. The incident placed Anderson into the
spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical
musician. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin
D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on
Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C. She sang before a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio
audience in the millions. Anderson continued to break barriers for black
artists in the United States, becoming the first black person, American or otherwise,
to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955. Her
performance as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera at the Met was
the only time she sang an opera role on stage.
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Anderson
