Opera singer Marian Anderson‘s talent enamored crowds and challenged Americans to rethink the bounds of classical music. Balancing her public triumph against adversity, she was renowned for her craft, humility and courage. Here are selected quotes from Anderson on her passion for music, resilience in the face of discrimination and the fulfillment of her successes.
Marian Anderson on discovering music and learning her craft
“A master builds something he knows that he does not have to have the finishing tools at the beginning of his job. It was systematic, it was a little more, a little more, a little more each year.”
“I remember one day, delivering the basket of laundry for my mother, and I heard a piano being played and somebody singing. . . There sitting on a piano stool, I saw a woman who looked no different to me and she was playing very well. She was not dressed up, she was unconscious that anyone was looking at her. In that moment I realized, if she could, I could.”
“My father bought our first piano. Oh, you have no idea the joy. . . I remember taking one finger of his hand to make it go up the scale. His fingers were so large that I could scarcely get them on one key at a time. He may even have tried to hit two notes to make me feel that he couldn’t do it as well as I.”
“There was a certain thrill walking to stand next to the conductor and as I remember it, the stadium was just jam-packed. And it was naturally one’s great, great moment.”
“My mother said to me ‘My child listen, whatever you do in this world no matter how good it is you will never be able to please everybody. But what one should strive for is to do the very best humanly possible.'”
“In order to be a first rate artist, a great deal of time and a great deal of energy would need to be spent in this direction as well as with the voice.”
Marian Anderson on facing discrimination
“I noticed that some of my people were embarrassed to the very core. There were others who accepted what they were having to live through. They were not in the position to do anything at all. It was certainly necessary to do something about it.”
“You cannot be expected to give as good a performance as you would hope to if your mind is partly on the fact that you are someplace but you certainly are not wanted there. And you are trying to sing to a group of people as if your heart is full of love and happiness and it isn’t completely.”
“No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people. And as long as you keep a person down, some part of him has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise.”
“As well as I know ‘America,’ for a while one was carried away to the point that words did not come. I as an individual was not important on that day. It happened to be the people whom I represented. I think if you have something to offer which can help a situation, then I think you should do it in your own manner.”
Marian Anderson on her historic successes
“We are all here to have a kind of living of our own and to be recognized for what we are.”
“Those who wrote the music, those who made the pianos which the accompanist played, the accompanist who actually lends support to the performers, to go off without any of these things to stand on your own, even the voice, even the breath, even that emotion that you have, it’s not of your doing. There is no particular thing that you can do alone. The ‘I’ in it is very small after all.”
“I went into the store and on the gramophone they played ‘Deep River.’ My heart began to jump like mad and I was flustered beyond anything you can imagine.”
“The greatest dream as one grew older was to be able one day to sing on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. And then came the day. When we came to the Metropolitan, there was a man who said immediately ‘Welcome home.’”
