In Philadelphia, the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was renamed Marian Anderson Hall on June 8. Yannick Nézet-Séguin (left), Philadelphia Orchestra music and artistic director, and Matias Tarnopolsky, Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center chief, celebrated the unveiling. Photo by Charles Fox/Philadelphia Inquirer.
In Saturday’s (6/8) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin writes, “It’s Marian Anderson Hall, now and forever. With apt pomp and following the strains of a jubilant string trio, officials Saturday afternoon renamed the Kimmel Center’s main concert hall for the contralto, civil rights figure, and daughter of a city that perhaps hasn’t celebrated her legacy quite as much as it should. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker stood in a sunny Kimmel lobby along with a crowd of elected officials, philanthropists, arts leaders, and several hundred onlookers to celebrate the melding of ‘one of the preeminent concert halls in the nation’ with the name of ‘one of Philadelphia’s giants.’ June 8, 2024 was declared ‘Marian Anderson Day’ in both the city and commonwealth. Parker presented one of the city’s Liberty Bell replicas to Anderson posthumously through her family, including Ginette DePreist, whose husband was Anderson’s nephew, the late conductor James DePreist…. Orchestra music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin told the crowd that a photograph of Anderson hangs in his studio backstage … The hall previously carried a commercial moniker—it was Verizon Hall since the arts center’s beginnings nearly a quarter-century ago—and now it boasts a rarity: a Black woman’s name atop an important civic building.”
