[Hanjeongho's Classic Lounge] On April 9, 1939, Anderson's Voice Resounded Across the United States

Black singer 'Anderson' praised by Toscanini... Late Met Opera debut due to skin color
Conductor Leonard Bernstein opposed segregation, promoted Black female singers and musicians
Norman, Hendrix, Battle led 'Big 3 era'... Black power still limited in instrumental and conducting fields

Han Jeong-ho, Guest Reporter · CEO of Etoile Classic & Consulting

On the 25th of last month (local time), large-scale protests shouting "Black Lives Matter" erupted across the United States after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died due to excessive police force by the Minneapolis police in Minnesota. The protest fervor spread comprehensively, with celebrities in sports, art, and fashion vocally opposing racial discrimination against Black people. However, the major figures in American popular music have shown a relatively calm and conscientious response to the situation, providing a model for society to follow.

Pop star Beyonc? released her new song "Black Parade" on June 19th, Juneteenth Day, which commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the United States. Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz donated the proceeds from his new album "Look for the Good," and BTS donated a whopping one million dollars (approximately 1.214 billion won) to campaigns for improving Black human rights.

The famous label Republic Records has decided to stop using the term "urban music." Urban music is a term that collectively refers to various Black music genres. The reason is that the term "urban" separates Black artists from the white music industry and marginalizes Black artists.

The process by which jazz, hip-hop, and R&B respond to social challenges and rise to the mainstream is itself an extension of the Black cultural movement. As civil rights activist Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (1929?1968) said, the continuation of sorrowful lyrics sung by African Americans is because it is "music that pursues victory."

However, unlike popular music genres, the flow of the Black civil rights movement in classical music is weak. A white female trombonist from the Austin Symphony in Texas was fired for mocking the Black movement on social media. Apart from this, there has been no impactful movement in the classical music world that has resonated with American society. Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Anthony McGill have each expressed protests on social media.

This highlights how disconnected the classical genre is from social issues and how marginalized Black artists are even within it.

Since the 20th century, the Black civil rights movement in classical music has been fragmented, appearing only in name. The first prominent Black classical musician was contralto Marian Anderson (1897?1993), who sang the lower vocal range. Anderson was born into a poor family and began singing in a church choir. In 1935, at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867?1957) praised her voice as "one you might hear once in a hundred years," and Anderson's career flourished.

Black soprano Marian Anderson performing outdoors in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 (C) PBS

Anderson excelled at dramatically expressing dark and deep resonance, becoming a representative American vocalist. However, the white mainstream society sought to control the emergence of the "Black diva." In 1939, Anderson's solo concert scheduled at the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Memorial Hall in Washington, D.C. was canceled due to opposition from the conservative women's group managing the venue.

At that time, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884?1962), wife of President Franklin Roosevelt (1882?1945), resigned from the DAR and arranged an outdoor concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial. On April 9, 1939, 75,000 people gathered in the plaza to witness the voice that Toscanini had so highly praised.

Despite unprecedented success in American classical history, it took Anderson more than 15 years to debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera. When she debuted in 1955 in "Un Ballo in Maschera," she was 57 years old, well past her prime. Sopranos Leontyne Price (93), mezzo-sopranos Shirley Verrett (1931?2010), and Grace Bumbry (83) followed the path Anderson paved to debut at the Met.

Another influential figure who helped these artists reach the institutional center was composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918?1990). Bernstein had already been striving in the 1940s and early 1950s to formally incorporate universal Black human rights into classical performance standards.

In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. Bernstein had opposed the Jim Crow laws, which enforced racial segregation in public institutions, long before that. This was revealed through archival research by musicologist Carol Oja.

In 1970, Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia were together at their New York home with Field Marshal Donald Cox, the leader of the Black Panthers party. (C) Stephen Salmieri

In the 1944 musical "On the Town," Bernstein already featured African Americans in leading and supporting roles. He included Black female singers in the New York Philharmonic's regular concerts where he served as music director. During Bernstein's tenure, the New York Philharmonic showed particular strength in jazz and Black spirituals, especially with Anderson's involvement. In the late 1940s, during his time with the New York City Symphony, Bernstein appointed Black violinist Everett Lee (103) as concertmaster.

Under the Jim Crow laws, Black artists' mindset remained at the notion of "separate but equal," but Bernstein's small efforts gradually changed this. Most of the audience at Carnegie Hall, where the New York Philharmonic performed, was white. However, the Philharmonic started free shuttle services from predominantly Black neighborhoods to promote social mixing. Influenced by this, the Paris city government later located the new concert hall "Philharmonie de Paris" in an underdeveloped area.

Thanks to Bernstein's pioneering efforts, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began monitoring racial discrimination in the entertainment field. However, after Bernstein's departure, jazz in the New York Philharmonic remained "music they don't want to do," rather than "music they can't do."

In the 1970s, Black singers began to appear competitively in the vocal music scene alongside recordings. Soprano Jessye Norman (1945?2019) successfully performed the role of the Countess in Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the 1970s. She enjoyed a long prime on major opera stages in the U.S. and Europe.

Sopranos Barbara Hendricks (71) and Kathleen Battle (71) were also loved for their new releases with EMI and Deutsche Grammophon and their opera performances. For a time, the domestic media called Norman, Hendricks, and Battle the "Black Pearl Trio." However, the term "Black Pearl Trio" has now become obsolete due to its racially discriminatory connotations.

Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves (56), sopranos Latonia Moore (40), and Pretty Yende (35) continue their careers under conditions with less racial discrimination thanks to the efforts of their predecessors.

Soprano Jessye Norman, who was the pinnacle of the lineage of Black divas since Marian Anderson (C) Sergei Chirikov

Bass Willard White, who was awarded the title of Sir by the British Royal Family for his outstanding musical achievements (C) BBC

Among male vocalists, bass-baritone Simon Estes (82) has been recognized for his expertise in German operas such as Wagner and Strauss. Jamaican-born bass Willard White (73) is active as a favorite of London Symphony Orchestra music director Simon Rattle (65). Among the middle-aged generation, tenor Lawrence Brownlee (47), skilled in Rossini operas, has stood out.

In instrumental fields, where starting young makes professional entry easier, Black musicians are rare. Pianist Andr? Watts (74), born in Germany to a Hungarian mother and Black father, is a remarkable figure. Since 1979, the Detroit Symphony has held the "Classical Roots" concert series in honor of Watts' achievements. Many younger Black musicians gain performance opportunities through this concert.

In the UK, the Black British Classical Foundation leads efforts to protect the rights of Black musicians. British cellist Sekou Kane Mason (21) released a new album with Decca. He gained attention for performing at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

There is still no space for Black conductors who exercise discretion in casting and repertoire selection. Dean Dixon (1915?1976) and James DePriest (1936?2014) have both passed away. Kwame Ryan (50), born in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, occasionally guest conducts the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Historically, the classical ecosystem has tolerated and failed to correct discrimination based on gender, religion, status, and economic power. Discrimination against people of color in the mainstream music orders of Europe and the U.S. persists. However, there has yet to be a united movement among the disadvantaged in the classical world addressing the inequalities faced by Black people and the racial insults experienced by Asians. It is time for the classical world to reflect on the duality of the "white envy psychology" latent in Black and colored people, as expounded by French writer Frantz Fanon (1925?1961) in his book "Black Skin, White Masks."