The late James Roland Holmes was the partner to Ned Rorem, American Composer, and Diarist. James Roland Holmes James was an organist and choir director. He worked with the Episcopal Church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy on West 84th Street in Manhattan.
James Roland Holmes was sometimes a composer of considerable skill. He was born on April 2, 1939, and died on January 7, 1999. James Roland Holmes became Ned Rorem’s partner for three decades. Ned always made mentioned how great their relationship was.
At the time of their 30th anniversary, James Roland Holmes was battling cancer and was also diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. He could not recover from his disease and died in the year, 1999.
James Roland Holmes’ partner, the late Ned Rorem won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976 for his Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra. Ned Rorem is tagged as “the world’s best composer of art songs”.
Ned Rorem was the author of sixteen books which include five volumes of diaries and collections of lectures and criticism. Ned Rorem was born on October 23, 1923, in Richmond, Indiana to his parents, C. (Clarence) Rufus Rorem (1894–1988) and his wife, the former Gladys W. Miller. He had an elder sister, identified as Rosemary. Ned Rorem then moved to Chicago to work for the American Hospital Association.
Per records, Ned Rorem had good relationships with four big-name men in music. This includes Leonard Bernstein, Noel Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson. Most of his private life was spent around James Holmes.
Ned Rorem died in the presence of friends and family, according to Boosey & Hawkes. American composer Ned Rorem died at the age of 99 on November 18, 2022. He passed away on Friday morning at his house in Manhattan, Upper West Side. According to his publisher, Boosey & Hawkes Ned Rorem’s death was from natural causes.