Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson, renowned contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the 20th century, was born on February 27, 1897, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Anderson was the daughter of John Berkley Anderson, a small business owner, and Annie Delilah Rucker Anderson, a former Virginia schoolteacher. Anderson grew up in Philadelphia and began performing by the age of 10 when she joined the People’s Chorus led by Emma Azalia Hackley.

Anderson graduated from South Philadelphia High School in 1921 and attempted to enroll in the Philadelphia Music Academy (now the University of the Arts) but was rejected because of her race. She then pursued private studies with prominent music instructors Giuseppe Boghetti and Agnes Reifsnyder.

In 1925, at the age of 28, Anderson won first prize in a singing competition sponsored by the New York Philharmonic and afterward remained in New York to pursue private studies. In 1928, she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall, and two years later, she made her European debut at Wigmore Hall in London, England. Anderson spent the early 1930s touring Europe, but she returned to the United States in 1935 to make her first recital appearance at Town Hall in New York City.