What was marian anderson

Over the next several years Anderson sang for U. She made several cross country tours and soon was booking engagements two years in advance. In one year she covered 26, miles in the longest tour in concert history, giving 70 concerts in five months. By , it was estimated that she had performed before nearly 4 million listeners.

Marian Anderson's contralto voice was notable for its power and exceptionally dark texture, particularly in the lowest register. The high voice changed quality—not unusual in a contralto of prodigious range—but idiosyncracies never obliterated the fine musicality and sincere emotion that marked her performances.

With Roland Hayes and Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson pioneered in winning recognition at home and abroad for black artists. In , an incident involving the Daughters of the American Revolution did much to focus public attention on racism. Her concert there, on Easter morning, drew a live audience of 75,, and millions more heard it over the radio. Anderson married Orpheus H. Fisher, a New York architect, in In Anderson underwent a dangerous operation for the removal from her esophagus of a cyst that threatened to damage her voice.

For two months she was not permitted to use her voice and was unsure if she would ever be able to sing again. When she was finally allowed to rehearse, her voice returned free of impairment. Roosevelt withdrew her membership from the organization.

The White House made arrangements for Ms. Anderson to give her concert on Easter Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before an audience of 75, She sang from Handel, Hayden and Schubert, but her repertoire also included spirituals.

Anderson said the spirituals gave an aura of faith, simplicity, humility and hope. Later, she did sing at Constitution Hall. For more than 30 years, Marian Anderson toured widely throughout the world and broke many racial barriers. She received many honorary degrees and awards for her achievements in the field of music.

In Massachusetts Hall of Black Achievement. Item Advanced Search. Privacy Copyright. And yet, she kept pursuing her love, with the support of her church and community, a launch to fame via an adoring European audience, and her refusal to bow down to American segregationist policies. If known at all today, Anderson may be remembered by many as a figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Soon, Anderson will be back in the limelight and known more fully again—she is the subject of a documentary by a Philadelphia-based filmmaker that will make the rounds this fall, and in , the U.

Anderson, born in , spent her formative years in a south Philadelphia neighborhood near the center of black intellectual and cultural life—a community that eventually would help the budding young artist. She began singing in the Union Baptist Church choir at age 6—encouraged by an aunt who had noticed her talent. Starting at that tender age, Anderson delivered performances that inspired and impressed.

At 12, Anderson became a family breadwinner. But she could not have gone to high school without the financial support of her church. Eventually, she was connected with Giuseppe Boghetti , a Philadelphia-area opera teacher who was not afraid to take an African-American student under his wing.

Facing off against other aspiring singers, Anderson won and was awarded a solo performance at Lewisohn Stadium, before a crowd of 7, A Kubey-Rembrandt Studio print of Anderson from that year shows her elegantly posed in partial profile, wearing a fashionable sheath dress, and smiling for the camera.

But, like many other African-American artists at the time, Anderson felt she was not getting her proper due. She left for Europe and starting in London, she made her debut at the Wigmore Hall in Though Anderson went back to the states and performed some that year, she was able to win a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund , established by a wealthy Chicago philanthropist who gave millions to African-American schools and causes.

The money helped pay for a move to Berlin in and a deeper study of German and lieder music. She soloed for King Gustav of Sweden and King Christian of Denmark, adding fuel to the growing fire of desire for her performances, which covered everything from German lieder, to Italian opera, to Russian folk songs, to traditional African-American spirituals. Anderson headed back to the U. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor invited her to perform at the White House in , making her the first African-American to do so.

Despite her global acclaim, she was forced to ride in segregated train cars and perform for Whites-only audiences. In , no hotel in Princeton would house her after her performance at the university. Albert Einstein—who would become a friend for life— invited her to stay, which was the first of many occasions that Anderson would overnight with the physicist and his wife.