Marian Anderson
Marian is known for her beautiful opera voice. When she was small she was in her church choir. Marian was popular and toured a lot in Europe. She was the first African American invited to perform at the White House. Also she was the first African American to perform with New York Metropolitan Opera and she won many awards.
Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lived with her mother Anna Anderson, dad John Berkley and her sister’s Alyse and Ethel. She was the oldest out of the three girls. Marian always loved to sing, so when she was 6 years old she joined her church choir. When she was just 10 years old her father died, leaving her mother to raise them alone. But that didn’t stop
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Marian from singing. By time she finished 8th grade her family felt like they couldn’t afford for her to go to High School, so she started to work around the neighborhood and also singing. She never missed a day at church. Later on members of the choir saved up money for her to get a voice trainer for her singing. She had a lot of trainers but, by the time she turned 18 she out grew them. Now she was a member of the senior choir at Union Baptist Church. She began singing with the “Hundred-Voice Peoples Chorus”, churches and events. She earned money and shared it with her mother and sisters. Marian toured a lot in Europe because of her singing.
She learned to sing songs in many languages. The hardest language to her was German. She gained a lot of money on her tours. She was very happy when she called her mother and told her she could quit her job. Later on she sailed to England to meet other African Americans who escaped from racism and were well known singer’s. While she was there she took German and French. Before she decided to go home she wanted to go to Germany were she could sing and study German lieder. Later she settled in Berlin, she also was nervous about performing at John Sebastian Bash. Many Germans were surprised to have a black women singing but when she got there she sang songs in German, Italian and spirituals in English. She was impressed Vehanen invited Marian to give a series concerts in the Scandinavian countries. No black person had ever appeared in Scandinavia before in Sweden. Anderson is a common name so she might attract attention. People accepted her as an individual. After her three week tour she headed back home to America. When she came back to the United States, they wouldn’t accept a white man Kosti Vehanen playing piano for a black …show more content…
singer. In 1936 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited Marian to sing at the white house.
Constitution Hall was the largest and finest auditorium in Washington, also an historical site. But the DAR had decreed that only white artist could sing there. The Constitution Hall opened in 1929 DAR had set aside a small section of seats in the balcony for blacks. Marian received an honorary doctorate of music from Howard University. In 1936 Marian did a concert at a High school called Armstrong High school a black school with a large auditorium. After she preformed, the first lady invited her to sing at the white house again. Even though the DAR said it couldn’t be any black artist singing there. Howard University Treasurer V.D.Johnston published a letter in the Washington Times-Herald telling the DAR that they wanted Marian to sing. Ickes the man who helped the first lady protest the DAR band to let Marion sing at the Constitution Hall. After all that drama the first lady just quitted DAR and decided to have a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial because it would attract thousands of
people. Marian became the first African American to be a soloist at New York debut. Also she broke the last remaining barriers to black singers. When she debut at the Metropolitan Opera, she was the first black soloist to perform. Later on in history Marian sang twice more at Lincoln Memorial. Also in 1958 president Dwight offered Marian to serve as U.S delegate to the United Nations. At her last tour in April 18, 1965 in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Marian got her farewell performance. In 1984 at age 87 Marian accepted the first Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. At age 90 she was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree by the University of Connecticut on June 9, 1987 and on April 8, 1993 the beautiful Marian Anderson died in memory was her opera voice. Till this day Marian is still remembered for her amazing voice.
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