Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is an American composer and diarist. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976 for his "Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra".
Life.
Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana in 1923 as the son and second child of C. (Clarence) Rufus Rorem (1894-1988) and his wife, the former Gladys W. Miller, born in Illinois. They met and married in South Dakota in 1920, where Rufus Rorem was working for Goodyear Rubber. Ned Rorem had an older sister Rosemary.
Their paternal grandfather, Ole John Rorem, was an immigrant from Norway; their paternal grandmother, the former Sinnie Thompson, was born in Iowa, as their father was.
Rorem's father was a medical economist and worked for the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care in Washington, DC. His ideas and 1930 study contributed to the development of the later combined Blue Cross and Blue Shield medical insurance plans. The family moved to Chicago, where by 1942 the father worked for the American Hospital Association. Rorem showed an early interest in and talent for music. He received his early education at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and the American Conservatory of Music. He studied at Northwestern University before attending the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York City. Rorem was raised as a Quaker and refers to this in interviews in relation to his piece "A Quaker Reader", which is based on Quaker texts.
In 1966 he published "The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem", which, together with his later diaries, has brought him some notoriety. He is open about his and other men's sexuality, describing his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, Noël Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson, and outing several others. Rorem also had a short affair with writer John Cheever.
Rorem has written extensively about music as well. These essays are collected in the anthologies "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 composer and conductor 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.
In 2005 Rorem was the subject of the feature documentary film, "Ned Rorem: Word & Music".
His notable students include Daron Hagen, and David Horne.
Selected works.
Operas.
["Miss Julie" and "Our Town" are his only full-length operas.]
Symphonies.
Symphony No. 1 (1950) [Peermusic Classical].
The First symphony is cast in four fairly brief movements: I. Maestoso II. Andantino III. Largo IV: Allegro. and is scored for full orchestra. Rorem has written of this work: 
There are as many definitions of symphony as there are symphonies. In Haydn's day it usually meant an orchestral piece in four movements, of which the first was in so-called sonata form. But with Bach, and later with Beethoven through Stravinsky, Symphony means whatever the composer decides. 
Symphony No. 2 (1956) [Boosey & Hawkes].
The Second Symphony is cast in 3 movements of unequal proportion; the 2nd & 3rd combined being less than half the length of the first; I. Broad, Moderate II. Tranquillo III. Allegro. The Second Symphony is probably the composer's least performed. Composed in 1956 it was only performed a handful of times and has remained dormant since 1959 until, as the composer puts it, "José Serebrier resurrected" it 43 years later.
Symphony No. 3 (Rorem) (1958) [Boosey & Hawkes].
The Third Symphony is cast in five movements: I. Passacaglia II. Allegro molto vivace III. Largo IV. Andante V. Allegro molto. It is perhaps the best known of Rorem's numbered symphonies, having been premiered by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, April 1959. Three recordings have been issued over the years, though none but the most recent Naxos recording has remained in the catalogue for very long. Notable conductors of this work include: Maurice Abravanel, Leonard Bernstein, André Previn and José Serebrier.
For the Naxos recording the composer noted: 
Of the five movements the second movement was written first, the first movement was written next, then came the fourth movement, then the third movement; and the last - fifth - movement was indeed written 'at last'. Movement I is a Passacaglia in C, a slow overture in the grand style. II was written originally for two pianos eight years before the rest, and incorporated as the second movement of the symphony. It is a brisk and jazzy dance. Movement III is a short, passionate page about somnambulism, full of dynamic contrast, and coming from afar. Movement IV is a farewell to France. Movement V is a long and fast Rondo - a Concerto for Orchestra all by itself.
Selected songs.
[All with piano accompaniment, except where stated otherwise.]
Solo instrumental.
Current/recent projects.
In an October, 2008 interview, Rorem referred to a new saxophone concerto for Branford Marsalis. He was commissioned in 2010 to write a piece for clarinet, cello and piano for clarinetist Thomas Piercy. He composed "Four Sonnets of Shakespeare" for tenor Andrew Kennedy, which premièred at Wigmore Hall, London on September 27, 2009, and a song-cycle, "Songs Old and New", written in 2008 for soprano Mary Wilson and premièred by Wilson and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra under Michael Stern in November 2009.
Recordings.
Rorem's works have been extensively recorded. The information below is very scant. For more information, please consult Rorem's own official website in the External Links (below).