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Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is a noted American composer and diarist. He is best known and praised for his song settings. He was born in Richmond, Indiana and received his early education in Chicago at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the American Conservatory and then Northwestern University. Later, Rorem moved on to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and finally the Juilliard School in New York City. During the time he lived in Morocco and Paris (1949-57), his song texts came from several languages. In 1969 he published his Paris Diary, which, with his later diaries, has brought him some degree of notoriety, as he is honest about his and others' sexuality, describing his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, Noel Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson, and outing at least a few people (Aldrich and Wotherspoon, eds., 2001). Rorem has written extensively about music as well. These essays are collected in anthologies such as "Setting the Tone", "Music From the Inside Out", and "Music and People". His music prose is much admired, not least for its barbed observations about prominent musicians such as 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. His notable students include Daron Hagen.
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