Walter F. 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, the sixth of nine children to a low income family, descendants of slaves. He started taking piano lessons at age seven and was quickly recognized as a child prodigy when he played piano and organ professionally by age twelve.

He chaired the music department at Antioch College and later was appointed director of music programs at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). He composed many musical pieces and was recognized with several honorary doctorates and awards. He later studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music. 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 was appointed as 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 was performed by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and the D-Day Prayer Cantata, suggested by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, in commemoration of World War II and performed on television in 1950 on the 6th anniversary of the invasion.

1993 The American Symphony Orchestra League recognized Anderson as one of 50 people whose talents and efforts significantly touched the lives of numerous musicians and orchestras.

2010 The Antioch Alumni Association named an award for advancing diversity in his honor

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