Referred to as "the greatest art-song composer of our time" by Robert Shaw and universally recognized for his skillful fusion of music and text, Ned Rorem was one of the most significant composers of the 20th century.
Born on October 23, 1923, in Richmond, Indiana, Rorem was raised as part of the Quaker Society of Friends. He began studying piano in Chicago with Margaret Bonds at the age of 10, and, at 15, started studying theory at the American Conservatory with Leo Sowerby.
Rorem took classes at the Music School of Northwestern University before enrolling at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He eventually disenrolled at Curtis in order to work for and study with Virgil Thompson. He then pursued studies at the Julliard School, where he was a student of Bernard Wagenaar, obtaining a Bachelor's degree from the institution in 1946 and a Master's in 1948. He also studied at Tanglewood under the tutelage of Aaron Copland, and was here awarded the George Gershwin Memorial Prize in composition.
Rorem moved to Paris in 1949, at the age of 25. He lived abroad for eight years, two of these in Morocco, while studying with Arthur Honeggar. He entered the patronage of Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de Noailles, who introduced him to notable French composers and writers such as Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, and Jean Cocteau.
Rorem returned to the United States in 1957, settling in Manhattan. He was composer-in-residence at the University of Buffalo from 1959 to 1961, and at the University of Utah from 1966-1967. Rorem was instrumental in reviving the composition department at the Curtis Institute, where he taught from 1980 to 2003. He also appeared as a guest lecturer at many institutions during this period.
Considered one of the most prolific artists of his generation, Rorem wrote over 500 songs, drawing upon text from his contemporaries, including Gertrude Stein, John Ashbery, Sylvia Plath, e.e. cummings, Theodore Roethke, Frank O'Hara, and Elizabeth Bishop. Rorem also composed three symphonies, eight operas, four piano concertos, choral works, ballets, and incidental music for the theater. His orchestral suite Air Music won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976. He received other numerous accolades, including a Fulbright Fellowship (1951), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1957), a GRAMMY (1989), Musical America Composer of the year (1998), three ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards, a Gold Medal in Music from the Academy of Arts and Letters (2003), and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Des Lettres by France (2001).
Rorem also published sixteen books over the course of his lifetime, many of which were written in the form of diaries. He was openly gay at a time when being so was illegal in the United States, and wrote in his Nantucket diary, "I am a composer, not a gay composer. . .Anyone can be gay-it's no accomplishment-but only I can be me." Rorem lived with James Holmes, his partner of over 30 years, until Holmes' death in 1999.
Ned Rorem passed away on November 18, 2022, in his home on the Upper West Side of New York City, surrounded by family and friends. He left behind a rich and varied legacy.
