Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem (b. Spring Grove, Indiana, October 23, 1923 - ) – Composer and author. Raised in Richmond, Rorem moved to Chicago as a child. After attending the University of Chicago Laboratory School, he studied at Northwestern University, the Curtis Institute, and the Juilliard School of Music. While living in New York in the 1940s, he worked as Virgil Thompson’s copyist in exchange for twenty dollars a week and free lessons in orchestration. From 1948 to 1957, he lived in Paris and was influenced by Nadia Boulanger, although he did not study with her as many American composers did. Throughout the next decade, he earned numerous accolades, including a Fulbright Fellowship (1951), A Guggenheim Fellowship (1957), and an award from the National Institute of Art and Letters. Known mainly for his American art songs, Rorem received a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for Air Music (an orchestral suite). A long-time resident of the East Coast (New York and Nantucket), Rorem returned to his home state in 2006 for the premiere of his opera Our Town at Indiana University.