Island History for Friday, January 28, 2011

A little more than a year after American singer Marian Anderson (1897-1993) had performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday 1939, before a crowd of over 75,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., she gave a stirring Friday evening, June 28, 1940 performance on Kaua‘i before a packed house at the Roxy Theater in Kapa‘a.

An enthusiastic reception greeted Miss Anderson at the Roxy, where the celebrated contralto — one of the most renowned singers of the twentieth century — won over her audience with her presentation of religious and dramatic numbers and light and humorous airs, and with her charming manner and unassuming personality.  Tremendous ovations called her back for six encores.

Featured were songs by classical composers Handel, Scarlatti, Bizert, Schubert and Verdi, while African-Amercian spirituals sung by Miss Anderson included “Deep River,” “Heav’n, Heav’n,” “Crucifixion” and “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord.”

The Steinway grand piano played by Miss Anderson’s accompanist, Verne Waldo Thompson of Honolulu, was loaned through the courtesy of Mrs. Kazuma Matsumura.

Mrs. Matsumura’s piano was, according to the Thayer Piano Co., the first of a new style of Steinways in the modern or classic style, and since it was known that it would be used for the first time by Miss Anderson’s accompanist on Kaua‘i, it had been especially selected at the factory, rushed fast rail across the U.S. Mainland, and shipped by boat directly to Kaua‘i, instead of by the usual, slower route through the Panama Canal.

Miss Anderson’s performance was arranged under the auspices of the Lions Clubs of Lihu‘e and West Kaua‘i. She arrived at Nawiliwili from Honolulu aboard the steamship “Haleakala” on Friday morning and returned to Honolulu on the same ship that evening.