Who was Ned Rorem? Pulitzer-winning composer and diarist died aged 99

On Friday, November 18, 2022, the well-known composer and diarist Ned Rorem passed away at the age of 99.

His publicist and longtime music publisher Boosey & Hawkes revealed the news of his demise, stating that he died at his residence on the Upper West Side in Manhattan from natural causes. Boosey & Hawkes also mentioned that he was surrounded by his friends and family members at the time of death.

Ned Rorem produced several symphonies and operas alongside solo instrumental, chamber, vocal music compositions, and 16 books. He was also the composer for Al Pacino’s film Panic in Needle Park and won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in1976 for his Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra. Prominent in his compositions for the solo human voice, Ned was called the world’s best composer of art songs by Time magazine.

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Besides composing several acclaimed music pieces, Ned Rorem was also involved in diary-writing

Born on October 23, 1923, Ned Rorem was the son of C. (Clarence) Rufus Rorem and Gladys W. Miller. He also had an older sister, Rosemary.

His family shifted to Chicago, where his father worked for the American Hospital Association. Ned soon developed an interest in music and finished his education at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and the American Conservatory of Music. He then joined Northwestern University and studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and Juilliard School in New York City.

Ned Rorem was a well-known composer (Image via Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)

Ned grew up as a Quaker and he often spoke about the same in interviews related to his piece A Quaker Reader, based on Quaker texts.

The composer published The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem in 1966. This was followed by the publications of Later Diaries 1951-1972, The Nantucket Diary of Ned Rorem, 1973-1985, where he was open about his and other men’s s*xuality. Moreover, all of these books spoke about his relationships with Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Virgil Thomson, and Noel Coward. Ned also had a short affair with writer John Cheever.

Besides his diaries, he also wrote about music. These essays were then collected in anthologies such as Music from Inside Out, Pure Contraception, Settling the Score, and Other Entertainment, among others. Additionally, the diarist also has a documentary film, Ned Rorem: Word & Music, under his belt. The film was released in 2005.

Ned Rorem’s music was mostly tonal and modern, and he never hesitated to target his words at popular contemporaries who adopted the dissonant avant-garde like Pierre Boulez. He once wrote that if Russia had Stalin and Germany had Hitler, France still has Pierre Boulez. Moreover, the composer had one motto for songwriting, which, according to him, should be the ability to:

“Write gracefully for the voice – that is, make the voice line as seen on paper have the arched flow which singers like to interpret.”

Ned was romantically linked to organist and choir director James Roland Holmes from 1939 until the latter's demise in 1999. He is survived by family members, including six nieces and nephews, as well as eleven grandnieces and grandnephews.