Richard Rogers was born in New York in 1902 and studied at Columbia University before leaving to study composition at the Institute of Musical Art in New York. It was there that he met Lorenz Hart and from 1925 to 1942 they produced several highly successful stage shows together. Then something happened which was to lead him to even more success, he met Oscar Hammerstein, who was also born in New York in 1895 and had studied law and his family expected him to become a successful lawyer. This was not to be, as their son shocked them by announcing his intention to give it all up and turn to music and an uncertain career in the theatre.

The collaboration of Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rogers resulted in a twenty year period which gave us some of the greatest musicals ever to appear on stage and screen. Who can ever forget such spectacular musicals as “Oklahoma,” “South Pacific,” “Carousel,” “The King and I,” and the ever popular, “Sound of Music,” which touched the emotions of many of us then and whose hit songs are just as popular today.

Oscar Hammerstein was once asked by a news reporter, why all his musicals were so bright and cheerful. He replied, “I know the world is filled with troubles and injustices, but reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings, as it is to talk about the slums and the poor. I couldn’t write any musicals, unless I felt there was hope in it somewhere, for we all need hope in our troubled lives.”