Orchestra pays tribute to King

The University's week long tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. concludes Monday night with a special concert by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Monday night's performance, however, is more than a commemoration of Dr. King, it is also a program dedicated to the memory of legendary singer, Marian Anderson. A native of Philadelphia, Anderson was a classical singer and the 1958 University honorary degree recipient who donated all her papers and memorabilia to the University of Pennsylvania Library. "Marian Anderson broke lots of color barriers," according to Music Librarian Marjorie Hassen, as an African American contralto with a worldwide following in the mid-twentieth century. Anderson's collection, which she donated to the University during her lifetime, includes printed music scores used for study and performance, newspaper clippings, diaries, photographs, correspondence and music recordings dating from 1920 to 1991, Hassen said. The Philadelphia Orchestra allowed the University to co-sponsor this year's Tribute to Dr. King because the orchestra decided to dedicate the performance to Marian Anderson, Library Director of Development Adam Corson-Finnerty said. The evening program of the University of Pennsylvania's Night at the Orchestra features a patron's dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse at 5:30 p.m., an Orchestra performance conducted by Andre Raphael Smith at 8:00 p.m., and a post-performance reception catered by Zanzibar Blue in the Academy Ballroom. The University has already sold over 200 orchestra tickets to faculty and staff, Library Development Assistant and Program Coordinator Rochelle Fuller said. A large portion of the proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the Marian Anderson Campaign which is raising money to fund the Marian Anderson Music Study Center planned for the fourth floor of Van Pelt Library. Anderson's nephew and heir, the internationally renowned Maestro James Anderson DePreist -- who graduated from Wharton in 1958 -- is leading the campaign raising $650,000 to create and endow the Anderson Music Study Center and to complete the cataloging of Anderson's papers. The new Music Center would complement the recently renovated Ormandy Listening Center and combine a large seminar facility; a glass-walled classroom; computer, multi-media and microform workstations; administrative office space for librarians; and a memorial exhibition area to display Anderson memorabilia. The current library facilities for musical research and study can only seat sixteen people in the Otto E. Albrecht Music Seminar Room and twelve in the Bodek classroom. In addition, Hassen said the new Center would mean "the difference between having something adequate and having something extraordinary for the University." "This collection should be one of the great highlights of our library, and I hope that with these events people will recognize this," said Jay Reise, professor of music composition and chairman of the music department.