Anne Brown

Biography

Born Annie Wiggins Brown in Baltimore, Maryland, she was the daughter of a prominent physician, Dr Harry F. Brown, the grandson of a slave. Her mother was of African, Cherokee and Scottish-Irish descent. Along with her three sisters, she was taught and encouraged in music by her mother. Hopes of developing her musical talents were dashed when a local Catholic school refused her entry on the grounds of her color. She encountered similar discrimination some years later when she applied to the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, but was finally admitted to Morgan State College and Columbia University Teachers' College. All three of her marriages ended in divorce. Brown remained in Oslo until her death. In 1999 she was elected an honorary citizen of Baltimore, the town where, 70 years earlier, she had been denied a musical education on account of her skin color. In 2000 she received the prestigious annual cultural award from Arts Council Norway. Her daughters, Vaar Schjelderup (by her third marriage) and Paula Petit (by her second marriage), survived her.