Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer. Best known for his art songs, which number over 500, Rorem was considered the leading American of his time writing in the genre. Frequently described as a neoromantic composer, he showed limited interest in the emerging modernist aesthetic of his lifetime. As a writer, he kept—and later published—numerous diaries in which he spoke candidly of his exchanges and relationships with many cultural figures of America and France.
Born in Richmond, Indiana, Rorem found an early interest in music, studying with Margaret Bonds and Leo Sowerby. He developed a strong enthusiasm for French music and received mentorship from Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, among others. After two productive years in Morocco, Rorem was hosted by the arts patron Marie-Laure de Noailles in Paris, where he was influenced by the neoclassicist group Les Six, particularly Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. He returned to America in around 1957, establishing himself as a prominent composer and receiving regular commissions. For the American Bicentennial, he worked on seven different commissions concurrently, among which was Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976.
Much of Rorem's life was spent with his lifelong partner James Holmes, between his apartment in New York and house in Nantucket. From 1980 onwards he taught at the Curtis Institute, where his students included Daron Hagen and Jennifer Higdon. He wrote the large-scale song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen (1997) to 36 texts by 24 writers, for the New York Festival of Song. It is considered by commentators and Rorem himself to be his magnum opus. Much of his later compositions were devoted to concertante and his final major work was the opera Our Town (2006).
Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer. Best known for his art songs...
NedRorem (1923–2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Though best known for his many songs, his compositions also include operas...
years, however, there is internal evidence in some diaries (e.g. those of NedRorem, Alan Clark, Tony Benn or Simon Gray) that they are written with eventual...
Poetic Interpretation of NedRorem's Ariel. Arizona State University. Lieson Miller, Philip (December 1978). "The Songs of NedRorem". Tempo, Cambridge University...
several times, including settings by Benjamin Britten, Roger Quilter, NedRorem, Mychael Danna and Paul Mealor. It also appeared as a song in the 2004...
repertoire and of songs by contemporary American composers, including NedRorem and Lowell Liebermann. She made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in April...
Notturno 1975: Dominick Argento, From the Diary of Virginia Woolf 1976: NedRorem, Air Music 1977: Richard Wernick, Visions of Terror and Wonder 1978: Michael...
followed by French mélodies, a group of American art songs by Barber, NedRorem, and Lee Hoiby, and spirituals. She liked to end her encores with "This...
This poem, as translated by Aubrey Beardsley, was set by the composer NedRorem under the title "Catullus: On the Burial of his Brother".[citation needed]...
in New York. He did not get past the door of the Mineshaft. NedRorem The composer NedRorem (1923-2022) wrote of his visits to the Everard Baths. Edmund...
teach, compose, and perform in Chicago. Two of her notable students were NedRorem and Gerald Cook, with whom she performed piano duos in later years. In...
Ernst Krenek, György Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen, Arvo Pärt, Walter Piston, NedRorem, Alfred Schnittke, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Igor...
Pennsylvania, where he studied composing under Pulitzer Prize winner, NedRorem. He also studied piano under Vladimir Sokoloff, Jorge Bolet, and Chamber...
John Harbison (who attended as a conductor/vocalist), Russell Peck, NedRorem, Gitta Steiner, Steven Mackey, Richard Aaker Trythall, Norma Wendelburg...
Prize-winning novelist Saul Bellow, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and diarist NedRorem, decorated composer Howard Hanson, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Ali...
needed] Maurice Ravel Ma mère l'oye : "Mouvt de Marche" of "Laideronnette" NedRorem King Midas, cantata Erik Satie Le Fils des étoiles Arnold Schoenberg The...
a song by Rainbow from Stranger in Us All Ariel, a 1971 vocal work by NedRorem Ariel, a ballet by Roberto Gerhard Ariel-class gunboat, a class of Royal...
2002. Our Town (opera), an operatic version of the play with music by NedRorem. Wonder has a mention of the play, but only the beginning and end scenes...
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