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 Olivia from Santa Monica, California writes: "My hero is Stephen Sondheim because he has written the best songs and created the music for West Side Story and A Little Night Music. Those are my two favorites of all the musicals he has written."
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ARTIST HERO:
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
by Nancy Nickerson
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Stephen Sondheim is known as one of the most innovative composers and lyricists of our time. From Romeo and Juliet (West Side Story) to fairy tales (Into the Woods) to Impressionism (Sunday in the Park With George), he has successfully shaped a fantastic assortment of stories into musicals filled with insight and wit.
Sondheim was profoundly influenced by Oscar Hammerstein II (of Rodgers and Hammerstein) who was not only a musical mentor, but a father figure for the young Sondheim. Sondheim's first musical was By George, a parody. Hammerstein pronounced the work atrocious and then went over every detail of the script with Sondheim. In that one afternoon, Sondheim received some of his most essential songwriting lessons. Later, he worked professionally with such top talents as Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, and Harold Prince. Sondheim is a passionate game player and even writes crossword puzzles for the New York Magazine. "I'd work on computer games if I had the time," he says. A CD-ROM of Into the Woods even included a game he invented that teaches music to kids and adults. Sondheim's career spans 5 decades and yet he says, "I don't think of retiring...I just genuinely like it [work], even when I'm having a rotten time doing it."
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Written by
Nancy Nickerson
Photos courtesy of Mark Bakalor's Stephen Sondheim Stage |
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Stephen Sondheim Stage Mark Bakalor's premiere site on Stephen Sondheim The Sondheim Review is dedicated to musical theater and Stephen Sondheim for biographical information |
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Stephen Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930. |
RECOMMENDED
READING | |
 Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions by Mark Eden Horowitz |
Stephen Sondheim by Martin Gottfried, Stephen Sondheim |
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Last changed on:9/1/2009 1:02:36 PM
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