Evening star., 1938-04-17

n mas come TO new Ork.
wv The trees in Central
Park are radiant with
lime green buds; the garment
worker girls are wearing colored
socks and tennis shoes; dogs who
have only been sent out of doors
during the bitter months with
maids and buffers are now tramp
ing proudly, all brushed and clip
ped, behind the click heels of
their mistresses; policemen are con-
stantly breaking up baseball
games that are being played in
forbidding areas and rubbing hop
scotch chalk marks of the side
walks: flower vendors, their horse
drawn wagons riot Of color. are
crying their wares. which may we
add from acid experience, are
guaranteed to last not more than
one day.
Wednesday evening the dark
Cinderella of music, Marian An
derson. sometimes known as the
coffee -colored Lotte Lehman,
gave her second concert Of the
season at Carnegie Hall. The
boxes were filled with those same
music lovers who 60 to all the
symphony concerts. In the Or
chestla were dozens of her own
race and standing room had been
sold out for a month. This ex-
traordinary colored woman, with
serious. mobile face and strong
hands. has a voice Of richness and
resonance that pours out of her
throat and chest and lungs as
though she were a vessel through
which magnificent tones flow. She
has superimposed on the vital,
warm voice, so typical of her race
the delicacy of rigorous European
vocal training. To an audience
which sat motionless while she
sang and roared their applause
afterwards, she sang songs OF
Handel. Cesar Franck, Sibelius,
Schumann lelder, an aria from
Bellini's opera Norma" and ended
her program with Negro spirituals.
Marian Anderson's history is like
gentle fairy tale She was born
in Philadelphia of poor parents.
Her father was coal and ice
man and her mother took in wash
ing. She lived with them and her
sisters in little brick house in the
colored section. She made her first
appearance at the age of s. sing
ing The Lord Is My Shepherd"
at a neighboring Baptist church.
On rainy days she and her sisters
used to sing spirituals to keep up
their spirits. When she was she
began to make money for her fam
lily by singing professionally. She
was billed as Baby Contralto"
After her fathers death several
Negro organizations got together
and raised money for her to learn
singing seriously. In 1925 she beat
300 aspirants in contest and as a
result sang with the Philharmonic
Orchestra in the LeWisohn Sta
dium. It was then she began to get
the fine press that has followed her
consistently ever since. After that
she went to Europe to study and
stayed there six years, working with
different teachers, travelling from
country to country and giving con-
certs. She got great acclaim, and
it was until 1881 that she returned
for her first American concert.
Now she shuttles back and forth
between the two continents.
She has sung in Paris. Prague,
Moscow. Vienna. Madrid, Stock
holm, Helsingfors and Amsterdam.
Genet of the New Yorker, in de-
scrlblng her appearance at the
Paris opera, said:
Paris is interested in the color
of voice. not skin. Miss An
derson's triumph has been vocal
rather than chronological" But
others described the glamorous
pictorial effect of her golden skin
and the golden dress she wore
against the gold background OF the
great stage.
AS far as tastes 60, Marian An
dersons are simple. She lives
when she is in New York at a Y.
w. c. A. in Harlem. She likes
tennis and swimming. She has
not yet met Joe Louis, but would
like to. She practices when the
spirit moves her, sometimes not at
all, sometimes 10 hours day.
The only thing which seems a
little unnatural is that she speaks
without a trace of Southern accent.
IT BEING holy week and there
fore quiet on most professional
and social fronts, another musical
evening drew its quota of people.
The second high-low concert was
given Sunday night on the Vien-
nese roof of the St. Regis Hotel.
All the right people were there
from social register angle, Mrs.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Francis
Brooks. Jules Glaenzer, Gloria
Bragiotti, Kay Halle and others.
Every one was elegantly dressed,
and pearls rustled on every neck.
From our point Of view it was on