Kennedy Center and WNO Seek Nominations for 2015 Marian Anderson Vocal Award

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Washington National Opera are seeking nominations for The Marian Anderson Vocal Award, which celebrates excellence in performance by recognizing a young American singer who has achieved initial professional success in the area of opera, oratorio, or recital repertory, and who exhibits promise for a significant career.

In order to honor Marian Anderson's personal and humanitarian achievements, the Award also encourages service and education. In addition to receiving a $10,000 cash prize and a Kennedy Center recital, the Award winner will participate in a brief residency at the opera workshop program of Washington's Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

The nomination process for the 2016 Marian Anderson Award opens today, September 17, 2015. Artists can be nominated by opera companies, orchestral and choral organizations, agents, professional music critics, and other organizations and individuals across the country. Self-nominations are not permitted. More information on the nomination process can be found at www.kennedy- center.org/programs/awards/marian.html; the deadline for nominations is December 1, 2015. A selection committee of distinguished members of the opera and classical music communities will review and select the recipient of the Award, which will be announced in March 2016.

In keeping with its mission to develop programs and initiatives that connect exemplary artists with the community, the Kennedy Center will work with the 2016 Marian Anderson Vocal Award recipient to create a learning program for an educational residency at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, the District of Columbia's public arts magnet high school. The residency will include master classes and workshops with vocal music students, as well as other events developed by the artist and the school. The school offers a dual curriculum encompassing professional arts training along with academic enrichment, helping to prepare its students for both college and future careers in the arts.

"I am thrilled that The Marian Anderson Vocal Award will expand to include mentorship between the winner and the remarkable vocal students at the Ellington School," said Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter. "The life and career of Marian Anderson stands as an example to all young artists, and this Award will continue to honor her legacy in meaningful ways."

American contralto Marian Anderson was one of the most celebrated singers of the 20th century. She became an important figure in the struggle for African-American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States, when in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused permission for her to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. The incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. before a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. She continued to break barriers, becoming the first African-American artist to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on January 7, 1955. Her performance as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera was the only time she sang an opera role on stage. She later worked for several years as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and for the U.S. Department of State, giving concerts all over the world. She participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on Washington in 1963. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

The initial impetus for the Award was provided by June Goodman of Danbury, Connecticut, a friend of Ms. Anderson's who wished to recognize the outstanding qualities of the groundbreaking African-American singer. The Marian Anderson Award Foundation then established the Award at Fairfield County's Community Foundation. In September 2002, the Kennedy Center and Fairfield County's Community Foundation collaborated to create a permanent tribute to Ms. Anderson's historic artistic achievements by presenting a cash prize of $10,000 and a recital at the Kennedy Center for one outstanding singer. Prior Award recipients include Sylvia McNair, Denyce Graves, Philip Zawisza, Nancy Maultsby, Patricia Racette, Michelle DeYoung, Nathan Gunn, Marguerite Krull, Eric Owens, Lawrence Brownlee, Indira Mahajan, Sasha Cooke, J'nai Bridges, and most recently, Jamie Barton. Beginning in 2016, the Award will be given on an annual basis.

More information on The Marian Anderson Vocal Award, including complete nomination procedures and deadlines, can be found at www.kennedy-center.org/programs/awards/marian.html.

For more information about the Kennedy Center, visit www.kennedy-center.org.