Marian Anderson Her first appearance at the Philadelphia Academy of Music was on April 22, 1918. She also began to perform further afield, often with William King, her main accompanist at that time. A major break for Anderson came in 1924 when her then-voice teacher, Giuseppe Boghetti, entered her name into a contest sponsored by New York City’s Lewisohn Stadium and the National Music League. She was the sole vocalist chosen to perform in concert with the NY Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium that year.
Throughout her youth, Anderson was surrounded by excellent music-making, as Philadelphia was host not only to homegrown talent, but to national and international artists on tour. For example, she had multiple opportunities to hear and perform with tenor Roland Hayes. While her studies with Boghetti focused on Italian operatic repertoire and spirituals, Anderson’s admiration for Hayes’ singing and interpretation of European art songs awakened her desire to master this repertoire. She knew that in order to grow as an artist that she would have to study in Europe, and by 1928, she had saved enough money to make her first European voyage. She went to London to study with Raimund von Zur Mühlen, the foremost teacher of German lieder in England, and to concertize.
Anderson’s second European trip came in 1930 thanks to a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. She spent the year in Germany studying lieder and German, returning to Berlin in 1931, thanks to an additional grant from the Rosenwald Foundation. This became a major turning point for her, for in Berlin, the Swedish concert manager Helmer Enwall, Finnish pianist Kosti Vehanen and Norwegian concert promoter Rudolf Rasmussen went to hear her. So impressed were they, that they invited her to give a concert tour of the Scandanavian countries. Vehanen became and would remain Anderson’s accompanist until 1940. It was through him, in 1933, that she met composer Jan Sibelius, who became an ardent supporter.
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