Walter Franklin Anderson

Walter Franklin Anderson (1915–2003) was a professor of music, classical/jazz pianist/organist, and composer. He was born on May 12, 1915, in Zanesville, Ohio, one of nine children to a low income family, descendants of slaves. At age seven he took piano lessons. By age twelve he was recognized as a child prodigy.

He was appointed as chair of the music department at Antioch College and from 1969 he led the music programs at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). He composed many musical pieces and was recognized with several honorary doctorates and awards. Anderson was named "one of 50 people whose talents and efforts had touched the lives of many orchestras in a significant way" by the American Symphony Orchestra League.

He died of cancer November 24, 2003, in Washington, DC. Coretta Scott King, who had studied with him, eulogized him in a 2004 Antioch reunion talk:

He was not only a superb musician and a brilliant educator, but also one of the kindest and most caring human beings I have had the privilege of knowing. A man of extraordinary compassion and generosity, he was one of those rare people who enriched the lives of everyone who had the privilege to know him.

Education

He attended Oberlin College on a full scholarship, receiving his BA in music in 1936. In 1937 he studied music at the newly created Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Ohio, where he studied composition with composer Paul Hindemith. He later studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

He was granted the equivalent of a doctoral degree in 1952 by the American Guild of Organists, and in the 1970s he was awarded other honorary doctorates.

Career

Anderson taught piano, voice, and music theory at the Kentucky State College for Negroes (now Kentucky State University) and then was the Music Department chairman Wilberforce University. He also directed music programs at Karamu House, a neighborhood arts center on the east side of Cleveland.

In 1946 Dr. Anderson became the head of Antioch's music department and was the first African American professor at Antioch College. Among the many students he influenced were Coretta Scott King and Leontyne Price. After she completed her degree in music at Antioch he encouraged Scott King to apply to the New England Conservatory of Music. In December 1947 Price performed as a soloist in George Frideric Handel's Messiah oratorio conducted by Anderson with the choirs of both Wilberforce and Antioch Colleges.

In 1948 he was granted a Rosenwald Fellowship in music composition, which he used to compose Variations on the Negro Spiritual, "Lord, Lord, Lord" which the Cleveland Orchestra performed. He also wrote the D-Day Prayer Cantata, suggested by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, in commemoration of World War II and it was performed on television in 1950 on the 6th anniversary of the invasion.

Anderson became the director of music programs at the newly created National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1969. While there developed projects for supporting music performances and composition and created funding models. He retired in 1983.

Throughout this time Anderson also worked as a concert pianist.

Compositions

Over the years, he composed close to 100 works for orchestra, chorus and string quartet. Among his best known were:

• Variations on the Negro Spiritual, "Lord, Lord, Lord"
• Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra, commissioned by John Sebastian for a performance with the Cleveland Orchestra
• D-Day Prayer Cantata performed on a CBS telecast in 1950

Additional associations

• Founding member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in 1957.
• Board member of Theater Chamber Players of Washington and Young Concert Artists of New York and Washington.
• Presidential fellow at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies in 1978.
• Served on Advisory Council to the Institute of the Black World at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center.

Awards

• Awarded four honorary doctorates in music including American Guild of Organists (1952) and Berea College (1970)
• 1979: Recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts
• 1993: Recognized as one of 50 people whose talents and efforts significantly touched the lives of numerous musicians and orchestras by the American Symphony Orchestra League
• 2004: Posthumously awarded the Gold Baton Award by the League of American Orchestras
• 2010: An award for advancing diversity was named in his honor by the Antioch Alumni Association

Books about Anderson

Horn, Joan, Playing on All the Keys: The Life of Walter F. Anderson, Yellow Springs Historical Society, 2008 ISBN 978-0971693326