The Pulitzer Prize-winning American com­poser Ned Rorem died on November 18 in New York. He was 99.

Rorem began his musical stud­ies at the age of 12 with Margaret Bonds and went on to study at Northwestern University and the Curtis Institute of Music. He graduated from Juilliard with his bachelor’s degree in 1946 and mas­ter’s degree in 1948. That same year, he won a Gershwin Prize for his Overture in C, and the prize money allowed him to travel to France and Morocco, where he wrote a number of his early songs. He was awarded a Fulbright Schol­arship in 1951 and studied in Paris with Arthur Honegger.

In 1959, the Philadelphia Orches­tra premiered Rorem’s tone poem Eagles, and the New York Phil­harmonic gave the premiere of his acclaimed Symphony No. 3. His first full-length opera, Miss Julie, premiered at New York City Opera in 1965. Four decades later, Rorem wrote his other full-length opera, Our Town, which premiered at Lake George Opera (now Opera Saratoga) in 2006. He also com­posed a handful of short chamber operas, including Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (1968), set to a libretto by Gertrude Stein. He was awarded the 1976 Pulit­zer Prize for Music for his Air Music: Ten Etudes for orchestra.

Rorem is best remembered as a master of the American art song, having written over 500 songs and song cycles. His 1998 song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen, consisting of 36 songs set­ting texts by a range of poets from Walt Whitman to Mark Doty, is considered his masterwork.

Brandon Gibson, bass-baritone and managing director of Mar­ble City Opera, died on November 16 at the age of 36. Gibson wrote the libretto for I Can’t Breathe, about the police murder of George Floyd, which premiered at Mar­ble City Opera earlier this year. He performed with Knoxville Opera, the Clarence Brown The­atre, and Marble City Opera.

Mezzo-soprano Joanna Simon, 85, died on October 19. Simon made her debut in 1962 as Cherubino at the New York City Opera and went on to premiere several roles in 1960s and 1970s, including the title role in Pasatieri’s Black Widow at Seattle Opera and Pelagia in Star­er’s The Last Lover at Caramoor. She also sang with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Sym­phony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and many others.

Italian tenor Daniele Barone died on November 5 at the age of 92. Barone made his Metro­politan Opera debut in 1956 as Cavaradossi in Tosca and sang over 54 performances with the company through 1962, earning acclaim for his interpretations of Puccini and Verdi roles. He frequently sang with the Philadel­phia Grand Opera Company and Philadelphia Lyric Opera Com­pany throughout the 1960s.

Philanthropist and opera enthu­siast Dr. John Serrage, a long­time trustee of Opera Maine, died on October 21. An accomplished pediatrician, Serrage served as Maine’s director of mater­nal and child health before retir­ing in 1988 and pursuing a second career as an archaeologist. Ser­rage’s association with Opera Maine began with the company’s founding in 1994, and he remained an active trustee until his death. In 2018, he was awarded the National Opera Trustee Recogni­tion Award from OPERA America.

Richard Best, a bass-baritone who sang 555 performances of 29 roles at the Metropolitan Opera for over 20 years, died on May 17 at age 87. In addition to his career at the Met, he appeared with the Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Paris Opera. Trained as a pia­nist, organist, and singer, Best taught for 20 years at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.