Anderson, Marian, 1897–1993, American contralto, b. Philadelphia. She was the first African American to be named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera Company, as well as the first to perform at the White House. Anderson first sang in Philadelphia church choirs, then studied with Giuseppe Boghetti. She began her concert career in 1924 and achieved her first great successes in Europe. Her rich, wide-ranged voice was superbly suited to opera, lieder, and the spirituals that she included in her concerts and recordings. In 1939, when the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow her to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her DAR membership in protest and sponsored Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial. In 1955 Anderson made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera. She was appointed an alternate delegate to the United Nations in 1958 and in 1963 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Bibliography

See her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning (1956); biography by A. Keiler (2000).

Anderson, Marian

Marian Anderson.

(credit: Courtesy of RCA Records)

(born Feb. 27, 1897, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died April 8, 1993, Portland, Ore.) U.S. singer. She was immediately recognized for the beauty of her voice and her artistry at her New York City debut in 1924, but the fact that she was black made a concert or opera career in the U.S. impossible. Her London debut in 1930 and tours of Scandinavia established her in Europe, where she worked exclusively until 1935. When she was denied use of Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939, Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for her to sing at the Lincoln Memorial, and the concert was broadcast to great acclaim. Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, the first performance there by a black singer, took place in 1955, when she was in her late 50s.

Anderson, Marian (1902–93) contralto; born in Philadelphia. Anderson grew up singing in a church choir, and at age 19 she began formal study. In 1925 she won a major vocal competition in New York City that gained her a career as a recitalist, but was always constricted by the limitations placed on African-American artists. In the 1930s she traveled across Europe and America, finding acclaim as perhaps the greatest living contralto. Her most electrifying moment came in 1939, when she was refused permission to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall because of her race; instead, she sang at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, for an audience of 75,000. In 1955 she became the first African-American singer to appear at the Metropolitan Opera. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, Anderson spent the next two years in a worldwide farewell tour.