The Times has a nice profile of the not-dead Pulitzer Prize composer and gay icon. The piece doesn’t mention his Quaker roots (he was born in Richmond, Indiana and raised as a Friend) but an embedded playlist includes “Mary Dyer did hang as a flag,” a piece from his 1976 composition A Quaker Reader.
I don’t know much about Rorem or the extent or ongoingness of his Quaker identity (if anyone wants to share more in the comments that would be great). I keep a list I call “Surprising Unexpected Unlikely Quakers” for names people give me of famous’ish people with Quaker connections. Who’s your favorite unlikely Quaker?
You asked for comments on Ned Rorem’s Quaker identity. I hope this is the place to do that. His parents, Rufus and Gladys Rorem, were members of 15th Street Meeting in Manhattan and regularly attended there in the 1980s (when I first became part of the community). I seem to recall Ned coming with them a few times. I don’t remember any specific vocal ministry from either of them, nor, I confess, do I remember speaking with them at social hour. But 15th Street had between 80 and 100 worshipers on Sundays at that time, and I tend to be shy.