Marian anderson biographies for teens

Singer Marian Anderson displayed vocal talent as a child, but her family could not afford to pay for formal training. Members of her church congregation raised funds for her to attend a music school for a year, and in she became the first African American singer to perform as a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Anderson was born on February 27, , in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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The oldest of three girls, Anderson was just 6 years old when she became a choir member at the Union Baptist Church, where she earned the nickname "Baby Contralto. With the family unable to afford lessons, the prodigious Anderson taught herself. At the age of 12, Anderson's father died, leaving her mother to raise her three still-young girls.

His death, however, did not slow down Anderson's musical ambitions. She remained deeply committed to her church and its choir and rehearsed all the parts soprano, alto, tenor and bass in front of her family until she had perfected them. Other opportunities soon followed. In , she performed at Carnegie Hall for the first time and eventually embarked on a tour through Europe thanks to a Julius Rosenwald scholarship.

By the late s, Anderson's voice had made her famous on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor to perform at the White House, the first African American ever to receive this honor. Despite Anderson's success, not all of America was ready to receive her talent. In , her manager tried to set up a performance for her at Washington, D. But the owners of the hall, the Daughters of the American Revolution, informed Anderson and her manager that no dates were available.