The Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall to be renamed for Philadelphia legend Marian Anderson

Farewell, Verizon Hall. The cello-shaped concert room at the Kimmel Center is getting a new moniker — something with a decidedly more Philadelphia flair: Marian Anderson Hall.

The name of the contralto and civil rights heroine will adorn the hall’s exterior beginning in June with a rededication ceremony and gala concert, leaders of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. announced Wednesday.

The renaming for Anderson is highly unusual in more than one regard. There are few instances in Philadelphia of names or images of Black women displayed with this degree of prominence. And among concert halls internationally, the vast majority are named for their corporate or individual donors.

Here, the philanthropists decided to cede naming honors to an artist and her message.

“For many of us, [she] has not been sufficiently recognized, and this was an opportunity. It was so long overdue,” said Leslie Anne Miller, who, along with her husband, Richard B. Worley, gave $25 million to rename the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra for Anderson in perpetuity.

“She was an extraordinary Philadelphia artist, number one,” said Miller, “but equally, if not more importantly, a woman who fought for recognition, who battled discrimination throughout her storied career with a lot of grace and a lot of grit, and who might have been pushed down but always got up and did even better as her revenge, if you will. I mean, she was an inspiration, and her legacy continues.”

This gift is one of the largest ever to the Philadelphia Orchestra and/or the arts center, which merged in 2021.

“It’s profoundly inspiring,” said Matías Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. “When I look at Rich and Leslie’s total devotion to the work of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kimmel Center, this is yet another chapter in a lifetime of total dedication to the arts in Philadelphia.”

Regarding the message it sends to have the name of a Black woman on so prominent a building, Tarnopolsky said: “This is also a gesture about ensuring that our organization is the most welcoming to the most people so that everyone feels welcome and seen in and around the performances and venues of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center.”

A separate initiative to erect a Marian Anderson sculpture outside the Academy of Music continues to raise funds, leaders of that project said.

The renaming was announced Wednesday morning on stage in (soon to be former) Verizon Hall. Several hundred leaders from the arts, business, and government sectors — as well as members of Union Baptist Church in South Philadelphia, where Anderson and her family worshipped — gathered for speeches. There was a brief performance honoring Anderson by mezzo J’Nai Bridges and pianist Michelle Cann.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker spoke about how the renaming reinforces the city’s connection to Anderson’s legacy, and how the singer’s message spoke for “the resilience and the dignity and, quite frankly, the grit that represents what our Philadelphia community is all about.”

“When I was sitting here looking at how beautiful and amazing this hall is,” Parker said, “all I could think about is the number of young people here in the city of Philadelphia who will one day get the opportunity to see this place, know that it exists, and particularly for those Black and brown young people to know that someone like them was worthy of a distinction like this. That means a great deal.”

Orchestra music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin addressed the crowd, calling the occasion “very truly one of the most emotional days of my life here,” saying that it was his life’s goal to make everyone feel welcome in the concert hall.

“Every time we will set foot on this stage, every time we perform, rehearse, every time we look into the audience and see new faces, because that’s also our goal, we will be reminded of Marian Anderson and her legacy,” he said.

And then, a touch of humor. The conductor, some of whose performances have been bedeviled by the interruptions of cell phone rings, added that the orchestra had been grateful to Verizon — a phone company — for its sponsorship all these years.

“But might I say, maybe it makes it better to say, ‘No phones in Marian Anderson Hall.’”

Anderson, born and raised in South Philadelphia, already had a remarkable singing career when, in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from performing at Washington’s Constitution Hall because of her race. The incident set off a public furor that culminated in a triumph: an outdoor concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939, for a crowd of 75,000 carried to millions via radio nationwide.

Anderson’s career soared. She became the first Black singer on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in 1955, and, in 1963, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Her presence was international, but ties to her hometown never waned. She performed in Philadelphia often, including, between 1937 and 1957, a dozen appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

“Marian had such an important role in the image of the city,” said Ginette DePreist, who took over the Anderson estate after the death of her husband, conductor James DePreist, who was Anderson’s nephew. “She carried Philadelphia on her shoulder throughout her career. She was always very proud to tell people where she came from and what the city had done for her in terms of support.”

The Kimmel’s 2,500-seat orchestra hall that will now carry her name to new generations was dubbed Verizon Hall after a $13 million donation from Bell Atlantic Corp. in 1996. The naming deal expired on Dec. 31, 2023, a POKC spokesperson said.

Worley and Miller are longtime philanthropists and arts leaders in the city. Miller — the first female president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and general counsel of Pennsylvania under Gov. Ed Rendell — recently ended a seven-year term as board chair of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She had been acting president of the Kimmel Center early in its creation. Worley was board chair of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association at the time of some of its most consequential decisions, including the hiring of Nézet-Séguin as music director and the group’s bankruptcy reorganization.

Miller and Worley met in 1980, and one of their early dates was dinner on the lawn for a Philadelphia Orchestra concert at the Mann Center.

“She brought the picnic supper, I brought the blanket and a bottle of wine, and it was just heavenly lying out under the stars,” said Worley, a former Tennessean whose investment career brought him to Philadelphia in 1978. Worley served until recently on the board of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

He said that naming the hall for Anderson, in addition to honoring a great Philadelphian, had a strategic purpose. The Kimmel’s buildings “looked a lot better 22 years ago than they do today, and there’s a lot of work ahead,” said Worley, adding that he hoped the gift and renaming opened the window to an ongoing campaign of support “that maybe has more human appeal than the average building campaign because of the name — because it’s not going to be named Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Hall.”

“Yes, how boring,” said Miller.

Already, Worley said, “there have been several other significant donations that have come in since this became quietly known, and hopefully over time there will be more.”

A gift from Sidney Kimmel — the center’s namesake — and his wife, Caroline, will go toward capital projects and other expenses associated with the rededication, such as signage, and artistic programming inside Marian Anderson Hall, a POKC spokesperson said.

The hall will be officially rededicated June 8 at the Great Stages Gala featuring the orchestra with Nézet-Séguin, actress/singer Audra McDonald, soprano Angel Blue, and others yet to be announced.

Additionally, the orchestra announced a new endowed scholarship named for Anderson with the UNCF (United Negro College Fund) to be awarded each year to two students from the Philadelphia area studying the performing arts or pursuing performing arts administration.

Tarnopolsky called the Miller-Worley gift an “incredibly generous one” in terms of its size and the flexibility with which it may be saved and spent.

Some of it will go toward operating costs, and some to endowment.

Said Tarnopolsky: “It really makes you pause and think about civic leaders like them who have mighty aspirations for the Philadelphia of today and for generations to come. They believe that music and the arts performed by extraordinary artists in beautiful venues are the beating heart of a great city and a great community.”