Ned Rorem (born 1923) was widely regarded as the leading American composer of art songs. He was also well known as a diarist and essayist.

Ned Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana, on October 23, 1923. He received his early music training in Chicago, where he took piano lessons and studied composition with Leo Sowerby at the American Conservatory in 1938 and 1939. He continued his studies at Northwestern University (1940-1942), the Curtis Institute (1943), and the Juilliard School of Music (1946, 1948), where he earned both Bachelor's and Master's degrees. In New York he also studied privately with Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and David Diamond. In 1949 he went to Paris to study composition with Honegger. After a short stay in Paris he lived in Morocco for two years and then returned to Paris. Under the patronage of the Vicomtesse Marie Laure de Noailles he entered the musical circles of Paris and was befriended by Francis...