Sondheim was born in New York City on March 22, 1930, into a Jewish family, the son of Etta Janet (“Foxy”; née Fox; 1897-1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966).
Isaac and Rosa, his paternal grandparents, were German Jews, and Joseph and Bessie, his maternal grandparents, were Lithuanian Jews from Vilnius. His father made the dresses that his mother designed. The composer was raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. As the only child of wealthy parents living in the San Remo at 145 Central Park West, he was described as an isolated, emotionally neglected child in Meryle Secrest’s biography (Stephen Sondheim: A Life).
Sondheim attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School while living in New York City. He attended Camp Androscoggin for several summers. In 1940, his mother sent him to the New York Military Academy. He attended George School, a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, from 1942 to 1947, where he wrote his first musical, By George, in 1946. Sondheim attended Williams College from 1946 to 1950. He graduated with honors and was awarded the Hubbard Hutchinson Prize, a two-year fellowship to study music.
Stephen Sondheim’s parents: Who are his father and mother?
Sondheim was born in New York City on March 22, 1930, into a Jewish family, the son of Etta Janet and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966). Isaac and Rosa, his paternal grandparents, were German Jews, and Joseph and Bessie, his maternal grandparents, were Lithuanian Jews from Vilnius. His father made the dresses that his mother designed.
