Editing Ned Rorem (section)

===1923–1940: Childhood and youth===
{{multiple image|align=right|perrow = 2|total_width=275
| image1 = Claude Debussy by Atelier Nadar.jpg
| link1  = Claude Debussy
| image2 = Maurice Ravel 1925.jpg
| link2  = Maurice Ravel
| footer = Rorem maintained a life-long interest in the French [[Impressionism in music|Impressionist]] composers [[Claude Debussy]] (left) and [[Maurice Ravel]] (right)
}}
Ned Miller Rorem{{sfn|Page|2022}} was born in [[Richmond, Indiana]], US on October 23, 1923.{{sfn|Holmes|Tommasini|McDonald|2003|loc=§ para 1}} Born to parents of [[Norwegian people|Norwegian]] descent, he was their second child after his sister Rosemary.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=3}}{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=540}}{{refn|The family name, Rorem, is an [[anglicized]] version of the Norwegian surname Rorhjem.{{sfn|Lewis|2022}}|group=n}} His father Clarence Rufus Rorem was a [[medical economics|medical economist]] at [[Earlham College]] whose work later inspired the [[Blue Cross Blue Shield Association]], while his mother Gladys Miller Rorem was active in antiwar movements and the [[Religious Society of Friends]] (Quakers).{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=3}}{{sfn|Page|2022}} Ned described his background as "upper middle-class, semi-[[bohemia]]n but with a strong Quaker emphasis".{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=540}} He later explained that his family was more culturally but not religiously Quaker;<ref group="R">{{harvnb|Rorem|1967|p=133}}: "We were Quakers of the intellectual rather than the puritanical variety"</ref> throughout his life he described himself as a "Quaker atheist".{{sfn|Page|2022}} The family moved to Chicago a few months after Rorem's birth, where he attended the [[University of Chicago Laboratory Schools]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=540}} Though not musicians themselves, his parents were enthusiastic about the arts, and brought their children to numerous concerts by the famous pianists and dancers.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=3}}{{refn|{{harvtxt|McDonald|1989|p=3}} names piano recitals by [[Josef Hofmann]], [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski]] and [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], as well as the dance performances by [[Ruth Page (ballerina)|Ruth Page]], [[Mary Wigman]] and the [[Ballets Russes]] as among those young Rorem attended|group=n}}

Rorem showed an early talent and interest in music, learning piano in his youth with Nuta Rothschild.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=3}} Though he had other teachers before Rothschild, she was his first to make a lasting impression: she inaugurated his life-long enthusiasm for French music and culture, especially [[Impressionism in music|Impressionists]] such as [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel]].{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=3}}{{refn|Although {{harvtxt|Ewen|1982|p=540}} claims it was his second teacher, [[Margaret Bonds]], who first introduced him to French Impressionist music, this contradicts both {{harvtxt|McDonald|1989|p=3}} and Rorem's own account: "for it was an awakening sound which immediately, as we Quakers say, spoke to my condition, a condition nurtured by Mrs. Rothschild, who began to immerse me in impressionism".<ref group="R">{{harvnb|Rorem|1994|p=63}}</ref> He expands on this further in {{harvtxt|Rorem|1983|p=9}}, quoted in {{harvtxt|McDonald|1989|p=3}}|group=n}} By age 12, Rorem began piano lessons with [[Margaret Bonds]], who helped foster his interest in [[music composition]] and introduced him to both American jazz and American classical music by composers such as [[Charles Tomlinson Griffes]] and [[John Alden Carpenter]].{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=4}} The music of [[Igor Stravinsky]] and songs of [[Billie Holiday]] were also particularly impressionable.{{sfn|Holmes|Tommasini|McDonald|2003|loc=§ para 1}}{{refn|Rorem later remarked that "A singer like Billie Holiday has been more influential on my way of writing a song than any so-called classical singer".{{sfn|Beck|Rorem|1993|p=27}}|group=n}} He began piano study with Belle Tannenbaum in 1938, under whom he learned and performed the first movement of [[Edvard Grieg]]'s [[Piano Concerto (Grieg)|Piano Concerto]].{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=4}} Throughout his youth he also studied [[music theory]] at the [[American Conservatory of Music]] with [[Leo Sowerby]], a well known church music composer of the time.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=4}} He graduated high school in 1940, around when he began a close friendship with the future-writer [[Paul Goodman]], whose poems he would later set to music.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=4}} Rorem also found interest in literary activities, having kept a diary since his youth.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=540}}