Ned Rorem
| Ned Rorem | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 23, 1923 (age 93) Richmond, Indiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | composer |
| Notable work | The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize For Music (1976) |
Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is an American composer and diarist. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976.
Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana, the son of C. Rufus Rorem whose ideas and 1930 study were the basis for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans. He received his early education in Chicago at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the American Conservatory of Music and then Northwestern University. Later, Rorem moved on to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and finally the Juilliard School in New York City. Rorem was raised as a Quaker and makes reference to this in interviews in relation to his piece based on Quaker texts, A Quaker Reader.
In 1966 he published The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem, which, with his later diaries, has brought him some notoriety, as he is honest about his and others' sexuality, describing his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, Noël Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson, and outing several others (Aldrich and Wotherspoon, eds., 2001). Rorem has written extensively about music as well. These essays are collected in anthologies such as Setting the Tone, Music From the Inside Out, and Music and People. His prose is much admired, not least for its barbed observations about such prominent musicians as Pierre Boulez. Rorem has composed in a chromatic tonal idiom throughout his career, and he is not hesitant to attack the orthodoxies of the avant-garde.
His notable students include Daron Hagen and David Horne.
[Miss Julie and Our Town are his only full length operas.]
...
Wikipedia