Born in New York in 1930, he is one of the most innovative and prolific composers of the twentieth century.
In his very lengthy career he has won an Oscar, eight Tony awards, a Pulitzer Prize, fourteen Drama Desk and eight Grammy Awards. He is the author of some of the most important American musicals of the second half of the 20th Century: West Side Story with Leonard Bernstein, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Into the Woods, Gypsy, Assassins and Passion.
Gifted with a wide and extraordinary musical skill, succeeds in combining sophisticated and popular, through a direct and essential style, without succumbing to sentimentalism.
Even the most dramatic topics are addressed with a humanistic, but also ironic angle. In 2010, in celebration of his 80th birthday, the former Henry Miller Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
In November 2014, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.