Lee, Sylvia Olden (1917-2004) | Oberlin College Archives

Sylvia Olden Lee (1917-2004) was born in Meridan, Mississippi to parents who were active musicians: Olden Lee’s mother, Sylvia Alice Ward, was an accomplished opera singer, and her father, James Olden, was a minister and classical singer. The passion for music instilled in her by her parents led Olden Lee to embark on a musical career of her own, which proved to be both highly successful and groundbreaking.

Olden Lee began performing at a young age, learning to play the piano at age five and accompanying her parents’ singing on the piano by age eight. Her father’s ministerial career brought the family to Washington, D.C., where Olden Lee took the first steps in developing her musical career. In 1933, at just sixteen years old, Olden Lee performed at the White House in honor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inauguration. She was to be invited back by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942.

Rather than training to be a vocalist like her parents, Olden Lee opted to continue studying the piano. She enrolled at Howard University, where she spent two years, before transferring to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, for which she received a full scholarship. Her career at Oberlin was laudable, and she participated in the Musical Union and was a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda honors society. Olden Lee graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory in 1938.

After her graduation, Olden Lee toured the country, most notably in 1942 with Paul Robeson. In 1944, she met and married Everett Lee, who was also a successful musician and orchestral conductor in his own right. The couple worked together throughout their marriage, including their joint Fulbright Scholarship. In 1952, Olden Lee and her husband were accepted as Fulbright Scholars to study in Italy, where she focused on opera and oratorio at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome.

One of the most important milestones in Olden Lee’s career was achieved in 1954, when she was offered the position of vocal coach with the Metropolitan Opera. She was the first African American musician to hold a position with the Met. She used her position to open the door for other talented African American musicians to perform with the prestigious organization, most notably Marian Anderson, who made history as the first African American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera, performing in Un Ballo in Maschera, as coached by Olden Lee.

After her time with the Met, Olden Lee’s career took her back to Europe, where, beginning in 1956, she lived and worked in Germany under a government grant producing television specials which aired in the country’s major cities. She returned to the United States in 1970, when she accepted the position of vocal coach at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a post she held until 1990.

While she retired from teaching in 1990, Olden Lee never truly retired, and another milestone came in 1997 when she performed for a television special at Carnegie Hall. She received an honorary doctorate in music from the Oberlin Conservatory in 2003 on the basis of her landmark career.

Olden Lee and her husband, Everett, had two children together: Everett Lee III and Eve. Their marriage ended in the early 1980s. After a battle with pancreatic cancer, Sylvia Olden Lee died on April 10, 2004 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

By Rebecca Sparagowski, June 2018

Sources Consulted

“4 to receive honorary degrees from Oberlin,” The Morning Journal, May 6, 2003.

Lee, Sylvia Olden, “Dialogue with Sylvia Olden Lee, Pianist and Vocal Coach: “Pay Attention to the Words,” The Schiller Institute website, February 7, 1998, http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_97-01/fid_981_lee_interview.html. 

Sims, Gayle Ronan, “Sylvia Olden Lee, Coach to Marian Anderson, Jessye Norman and  Kathleen Battle, Has Died Aged 86,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 20, 2004, http://www.andante.com/article/print.cfmid+23619&varticletype=NEWS.

Weiss, Judith, “Sharing the Lessons of a Lifetime,” Oberlin Conservatory Alumni Notes, 2004, http://www2.oberlin.edu/con/connews/2004/alumni_notes.html.