Voice of a Century: The Life and Artistry of Marian Anderson, by Anthony Tommasini

The book’s introduction is titled “I Wanted to Be Her.” The chapter details how a young Leontyne Price and her mother made a 90-mile bus trip in 1941 to hear the great diva in Jackson, Mississippi. That concert cemented Price’s desire to sing and—as Anderson did for so many others—provided an inspirational road map for the often-rocky path of Black musicians entering the classical music world.

That Mississippi concert was held two years after Anderson’s headline-making, prejudice-busting appearance at Washington, DC’s Lincoln Memorial. At the behest of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson sang to a crowd of 75,000 in a concert broadcast live, nationally and internationally, that cemented her place in the pantheon of classical music.

Chasing an iconic voice

Filled with scholarship and fascinating detail, the book explores her strong family roots and the musical upbringing in Philadelphia that provided the bedrock of a career filled with artistic and personal triumphs and immense challenges. As a young artist, Anderson traveled and worked throughout Europe in order to establish the career she couldn’t craft at home. Throughout the volume’s 352 pages, Tommasini provides an illuminating look at that long and winding international road that led to her success in America.

As well as the expected biographical milestones, Tommasini delves deeply into the historical and social context of Anderson’s remarkable life. When he calls Marian Anderson the “voice of a century,” he is of course referring to her musicality and artistic prowess. But as he illustrates in this readable and smooth-flowing biography, Tommasini also explores her tireless work (in the midst of personal struggles) for equal rights for all. Yes, Miss Anderson (as she preferred to be called) was a singer’s singer. But she was also “the voice of a century” in the struggle advocating for everyone’s place at the table.

Over her lifetime, Marian Anderson experienced overt racism in the US and more subtle racism in Europe, but she never veered from her goal to become a great artist. She saw as “my mission to leave behind me the kind of impression that will make it easier for those who follow.” Admired mezzo Betty Allen (1952 winner of Philadelphia’s Marian Anderson Award and president of the Harlem School of the Arts) called her “the mother of every Black singer . . . who opened all those doors that had been closed.” In his last chapter, titled The Lady from Philadelphia, Tommasini documents another door that was opened, concluding the book with the Kimmel Center’s star-studded June 2024 event changing the name of its largest concert venue to Marian Anderson Hall.

A welcoming work from a consummate insider

Trained as a pianist and drawing on his own substantial body of work (former New York Times critic and author of four other music volumes), Tommasini includes personal details that reaffirm his credibility. He employs his well-known critical acumen, inserting passages of musical analysis (mostly drawn from Anderson’s recordings) that will be of interest to the musical community yet inclusive of the reader at large. It’s a tribute to the author’s skill that these frequent interludes move the biographical story forward while enhancing the historical, social, and musical settings in which Anderson lived and worked.

Told by a consummate musical insider, Voice of a Century explores the challenging mid-20th- century milieu in which Anderson studied, sang, worked, and lived. Imbued with Tommasini’s admiration for his subject, the volume is a welcome literary destination for anyone interested in knowing more about Anderson and the times in which she rose to musical prominence.

Again and again, Tommasini illustrates by example and acumen why Anderson was both a great singer and a great American. I loved this deeply felt and well-crafted biography, studded with welcome photographs and accessible references and footnotes, excellently researched and interesting reading in themselves, placed at the end of the volume so the narrative flows unencumbered.

On November 12, the author will be at the Parkway Central Library, speaking about Voice of a Century with Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic (register here). And it’s not too early to begin thinking about the upcoming holiday season. Any opera or music lover, musician, or reader interested in 20th-century American history would surely welcome Tommasini’s heartfelt and discerning book to the shelves of their library. I’m thrilled to have it on mine.