Editing Richard Rodgers (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Fly_With_Me_poster.jpg|thumb|The poster for ''[[Fly With Me (musical)|Fly With Me]]'', the 1920 Columbia University [[Varsity Show]]. The music was co-written by Rodgers and [[Lorenz Hart]], and also included songs by [[Oscar Hammerstein II]], making the show one of the first collaborations between the two men.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Sing a Song of Morningside|url=https://www.thevarsityshow.com/about-sing-a-song-of-morningside|access-date=August 28, 2021|website=The Varsity Show|language=en-US}}</ref>]]

Rodgers was born into a [[Jewish]] family in Queens, New York, the son of Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Rogazinsky, and his wife Mamie ({{née}} Levy). Rodgers began playing the piano at the age of six. He attended P.S. 166, Townsend Harris Hall and [[DeWitt Clinton High School]]. Rodgers spent his early teenage summers in Camp Wigwam ([[Waterford, Maine]]) where he composed some of his first songs.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hyland-rodgers.html Hyland, William G: ''Richard Rodgers''] ''The New York Times'', Chapter 1. Yale University Press, 1998, {{ISBN|0-300-07115-9}}</ref>

Rodgers, [[Lorenz Hart]], and later collaborator [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] all attended [[Columbia University]]. At Columbia, Rodgers joined the [[Pi Lambda Phi]] fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to the Institute of Musical Art (now the [[Juilliard School]]).<ref>Richard Rodgers, ''Musical Stages: An Autobiography'' (2002 Reissue), pp. 12,20–21,44, DaCapo Press, {{ISBN|0-306-81134-0}}</ref> Rodgers was influenced by composers such as [[Victor Herbert]] and [[Jerome Kern]], as well as by the [[operetta]]s his parents took him to see on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] when he was a child.