Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson is regarded as one of the best contraltos of the twentieth-century. She earned the distinction of becoming the first African American singer who performed with the New York Metropolitan Opera. Marian was born in Philadelphia and started displaying her extraordinary vocal talent from the time she was a child. However, her family was not well off and did not have enough means to pay for her formal vocal training. It was a magnanimous gesture shown by the members of Marian’s church congregation who raised funds, which enabled her to attend a music school for about a year. A major portion of her singing career was devoted in giving performances in recital in important music venues and in concerts as well as with well known orchestras throughout Europe and the United States of America. Though she was offered various roles with many of the major European opera companies but Marian declined all of them as she was not a trained actor. Her first preference had always to perform in recitals and concerts only. However, Marian did perform opera arias within her recitals and concerts. She did several recordings that were a reflection of her broad performance talents ranging from concert literature to traditional American songs, to opera and spirituals. Marian Anderson became one of the important personalities in the then ongoing struggle for many of the black artists for overcoming racial prejudices during the mid twentieth-century in the United States of America.