Philadelphia's Marian Anderson gets her due with concert hall naming

State of play: Officials from The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center in June will officially rededicate Verizon Hall, the massive auditorium with the glass-and-steel barreled roof on S Broad Street, as Marian Anderson Hall, per a news release.

Zoom in: The renaming came from a $25 million donation by Leslie Miller and Richard Worley, among the largest ever to the arts center or orchestra.

Between the lines: It's rare for donors of large gifts who receive naming rights to a building to request someone else's name be used.

Catch up quick: South Philly's Anderson, born in 1897, was an acclaimed contralto and trailblazing activist for civil rights.

• She was said to have a voice that came along "once in a hundred years," per renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini.
• When Anderson was banned from signing at Washington's Constitution Hall in 1939 due to the color of her skin, it led to her performing an outdoor concert that became a defining moment in the civil rights movement.

Plus: The city is also working to install a sculpture of Anderson in front of the Academy of Music.

What they're saying: "History cannot be rewritten, but there are many ways that music and the musical world can serve to right historic wrongs," said Matías Tarnopolsky, CEO and president of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, in a statement.