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[[image of Miss Anderson, titled in Vienna, 1934}}

was a sensitive man, a fine writer, and a thoughtful music lover, but he was not a seer. What was there about Miss Anderson that could inspire a remark that foretells in sum if not in detail the award to her of the Joel Spingarn Medal; the amazing outpouring of 75,000 persons who gathered on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial to pay her honor in 1939 when she had been forbidden, because of her color, to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall; her invitation to sing before King George and Queen Elizabeth on their visit to the White House later the same year; her recognition by her native city of Philadelphia when she was named winner of the Edward Bok Award in 1941; her receipt of numerous honorary degrees from Smith, from Howard, from other colleges; from the governments of Liberia and Sweden, honors and decorations?

Since I do not know Miss Anderson at all, save as a public performer and as a "contemporary," I can give my answer objectively and without and without sentimentality.  I have never seen her deviate from a code of sincerity and dignity quite remarkable.  She has, on occasions, been in better voice than other times, but she has never left me with any other feeling than profound respect for her earnestness and workmanship. I have no recollection that she has ever misjudged her capacities by undertaking music for which she is not suited by voice or temperament... whether it was "O Don Fatale" from "Don Carlo" at her Town Hall reappearance or the "Card Scene" from Carmen" at a memorable concert in Carnegie Hall in 1939.

A revealing remark was credited to Franz Rupp, her excellent pianistic collaborator through most of the '40's.  He was seen in earnest conversation with a member of a local committee before a concert, who suggested how Miss Anderson should conduct herself on stage.  Mr. Rupp commented, "What Miss Anderson does on the stage is her business."  One need hardly add that it is a business which she knows very well.

These are some of the qualities that Gilman must have sensed at that early time.  Had he lived on, he might have told us that he foresaw in Miss Anderson a quiet but effective fighter for the rights of her fellow citizens of unconventional coloration; not as noisy as some, but no less determined.  He might have known that when she had been granted the right to sing in Constitution Hall, she did not celebrate the occasion as a personal triumph, but utilized it, in war time, to raise nearly $7,000 for United China relief.

Perhaps if he saw so far and so true, he might have added that the little girl who had heard and been stirred by the great Negro tenor Roland Hayes in childhood would not forget the problems of others when she became famous and well to do. Out of the cash award of $10,000 that went with the Bok Award, she established the Marian Anderson Award to "enable poor but talented people to do something for which they have dreamed all their lives."  In a ten year period, the list of winners has turned up such deserving people as Camilla Williams, Rosalind Nadell, Genevieve Warner (now with the Metropolitan Opera Association), Helen Colbert (abroad in "Porgy and Bess"), Rawn Spearman, Luther Saxon and Mattiwilda Dobbs.

All, without exception have the "beautiful voice."  Along with giving them financial comfort, Marian Anderson has given them what is, to me, her most valuable spiritual aid - an example of what to do about the perpetual "But" that confronts every young artist.  That is Marian Anderson to me.

[[image of a theater, titled In Paris 1937, at the Opera]]

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[[image of Franz Rupp]]
(in large type) Franz Rupp 

Not only one of the finest accompanists on the concert stage today, but a noted soloist in his own right, Franz Rupp has been Marian Anderson's assisting artist for the past ten seasons.  Born in the Bavarian Alps, Mr. Rupp began his musical training at the age of five as a violinist under the tutelage of his father, a gifted amateur violinist.  When he was seven, he turned to the piano, and at ten had already heard his own compositions performed in his native town.  Entering the Munich Academy of Music at fourteen, he won, for four consecutive years, the annual grand prize offered by the Bavarian Government.  After his graduation the pianist toured Europe extensively both as concert soloist and as accompanist to many of the world's leading artists.  He toured with Fritz Kreisler in South America and was invited by the distinguished violinist to record with him in London the complete Beethoven sonatas for His Master's Voice.  Kreisler wrote of him:  "I consider Franz Rupp one of the  most important representatives of the younger generations of pianists".  In 1938, his anti-Hitler sentiments came to the ears of the Gestapo, and he was forced to make his escape.  Each season Mr. Rupp intersperses his tours with Miss Anderson with a number of solo concerts of his own under Mr. Hurok's management.  In addition to his many recordings with Miss Anderson, Franz Rupp has made a number of distinguished chamber music pressings.