Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim died at his home in Connecticut today at the age of 91. "An intellectually rigorous artist who perpetually sought new creative paths, Mr. Sondheim was the theater’s most revered and influential composer-lyricist of the last half of the 20th century," writes the New York Times in its obituary. Several Broadway, film, and original cast productions of his works have been recorded for Nonesuch Records, including A Little Night Music, Road Show, Sweeney Todd, Company, Bounce, Into the Woods, The Frogs, Evening Primrose, Saturday Night, and Gypsy. His songs have also been featured on Nonesuch albums by Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, and Dawn Upshaw.

Steve Reich will publish Conversations, a new book, via HarperCollins' Hanover Square Press, on March 8, 2022. In the book, the composer speaks with collaborators, fellow composers, musicians, and visual artists influenced by his work—including Nonesuch Records Chairman Emeritus Robert Hurwitz, Jonny Greenwood, Kronos Quartet's David Harrington, Stephen Sondheim, Nico Muhly, Brian Eno, Michael Gordon, and others—to reflect on his prolific career as a composer as well as the music that inspired him and that has been inspired by him. The New York Times calls it "a surprising, enlightening series of conversations that shed new light on the music and career of 'our greatest living composer.'" The New Yorker says: "Through this series of insightful, wide-ranging conversations starting from his student days to the present pandemic, we gain a compelling glimpse into the mind of 'the most original musical thinker of our time.'"

The soundtrack to the Tim Burton–directed film of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, first released on Nonesuch in 2007, receives its first-ever vinyl edition in a two-LP set out now. The film, which won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, is an adaptation by John Logan of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and the late Alan Rickman. "Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme—I am tempted to say evil—genius," exclaimed the New York Times' A.O. Scott. "This Sweeney is a bloody wonder," raved Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, "intimate and epic, horrific and heart-rending as it flies on the wings of Sondheim's most thunderously exciting score."

The soundtrack to the Tim Burton–directed film of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, first released on Nonesuch in 2007, will receive its first-ever vinyl edition on November 13, 2020, in a two-LP set, available to pre-order now. The film, which won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, is an adaptation by John Logan of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and the late Alan Rickman. "Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme—I am tempted to say evil—genius," exclaimed the New York Times' A.O. Scott. "This Sweeney is a bloody wonder," raved Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, "intimate and epic, horrific and heart-rending as it flies on the wings of Sondheim's most thunderously exciting score."

Stephen Sondheim, who turned 90 on March 22, was given a birthday celebration to remember when scores of artists came together, virtually, to perform his songs on Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration last night. The two-plus-hour event, a benefit for ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty), was hosted by Raúl Esparza and includes performances and birthday wishes from Esparza, Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Meryl Streep, Patti LuPone, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Lane, Kelli O’Hara, Laura Benanti, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Donna Murphy, Alexander Gemignani, and so many more. You can watch it here.

Reasons to celebrate may be hard to come by these days, but the 90th birthday of Stephen Sondheim is certainly one of them. To mark the occasion, we've assembled all of the Sondheim songs and cast albums on Nonesuch recordings in one place, featuring Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Dawn Upshaw, Jonny Depp, Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Michael Cerveris, Raúl Esparza, Laura Benanti, Nathan Lane, Neil Patrick Harris, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Vanessa WIlliams, Alexander Gemignani, and more. "When his words go through my system," Patinkin tells the Guardian, "they rejuvenate my mind and soul to a point of reminding me what it is I am trying to be alive for."

Stephen Sondheim will receive the 2017 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award at PEN America's annual Literary Gala on April 25 in New York; Meryl Streep will present the prize. "Stephen Sondheim's oeuvre is profoundly literary in its elegiac reaching for the truth of who we are, how we love, and how we strive to locate meaning in our work," said Andrew Solomon, president of PEN America. "He will be the first composer-lyricist to receive this award, which recognizes his nuanced insight into human character. His support for a new generation of writers makes him a literary citizen of the first order."

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's latest musical, Road Show, begins a month-long DC-area run at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, tonight. Director Gary Griffin brings his Chicago Shakespeare Theater staging of the musical, which the Chicago Sun-Times called "funny, fierce, lean, and heartbreaking," to the Signature. Performances continue through March 13. Nonesuch Records and PS Classics released the original cast recording of Road Show in 2009.

Steve Reich and Stephen Sondheim, as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, took part in an evening of conversation, moderated by WNYC's John Schaefer, on January 31, 2015. This special occasion marked the first the time the two appeared together on stage. The evening, which also included performances of several of their seminal works by Paul Gemignani, George Lee Andrews, Kate Baldwin, Michael Cerveris, Ensemble Signal, Alexander Gemignani, and Derek Johnson, was filmed by Lincoln Center. Watch it here.

President Barack Obama has named composer Stephen Sondheim a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The medals will be presented in a ceremony at The White House Tuesday evening. "I look forward to presenting these 17 distinguished Americans with our nation’s highest civilian honor," says President Obama. "From public servants who helped us meet defining challenges of our time to artists who expanded our imaginations, from leaders who have made our union more perfect to athletes who have inspired millions of fans, these men and women have enriched our lives and helped define our shared experience as Americans."

Composers Steve Reich and Stephen Sondheim will be featured in Lincoln Center's 2015 American Songbook series. They will take part in an evening of conversation, moderated by WNYC's John Schaefer, in The Appel Room, on January 31, marking the first the time the two will have appeared together on stage. The evening also includes performances of several of their seminal works . Tickets go on sale on Monday, November 17.

The New Yorker has announced the program for the 2014 New Yorker Festival, taking place October 10–12, in New York City, which includes four artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Randy Newman in conversation with Susan Morrison, Jeremy Denk giving a talk on Comedy and Convention from Mozart to Seinfeld, Laurie Anderson with Alex Ross, and Stephen Sondheim with Adam Gopnik.