Event
March 7, 2025
7:00 pm to TBD CST
Location
Clement Railroad Hotel Museum at Hotel Halbrook State Historic Site 100 Frank Clement Pl. Dickson, TN 37055
About this event
The Clement Railroad Hotel Museum is excited to partner with the Nashville Opera for a live musical performance and historical program on the life of famed contralto Marian Anderson.
"When Marian Sang," is a program centered around the young adult friendly book, When Marian Sang, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, which tells the life story of Marian Anderson, the first Black opera singer to sing a principal role at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955. This book incorporates the lyrics to several spirituals, and “My Country Tis Of Thee”, which she sang at her famous performance at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. in 1939. In this program, some of Nashville’s best classically trained Black singers perform all of the musical selections incorporated in this book, as the book is narrated. Also, there will be a powerpoint program with images to accompany the narrative of the book.
In 1939, Marian Anderson, an African American herself, was set to perform at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall, but, due to racial segregation laws of the time, she was refused the opportunity to sing before an integrated audience. This put Anderson in the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician. With the support of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson performed a famed concert on April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of more than 75,000, with millions more listening over the radio.
Anderson would later become the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. She participated in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and sang at the 1963 March on Washington. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Marian Anderson was awarded the first Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, the National Medal of the Arts, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.