Jonathon Larson wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Rent for which he won the 1994 Richard Rodgers Award. He recently received The Gilman & Gonzales-Falla Theatre Foundation's Commendation Award. In 1989 he was granted the Stephen Sondheim Award from American Music Theatre Festival, where he contributed to the musical Sitting on the Edge of the Future. In 1988 he won the Richard Rodgers Development Grant for his rock musical Superbia, which was staged at Playwrights Horizons. Mr. Larson performed his rock monologue tick, tick...BOOM! at Second Stage Theatre, The Village Gate, and New York Theatre Workshop.

In addition to scoring and song writing for Sesame Street, he created music for a number of children's book-cassettes, including Steven Spielberg's An American Tale and Land Before Time. Other film scores include work for Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner. He conceived, directed, and wrote four original songs for Away We Go!, a musical video for children. Rent, his rock opera based on La Boheme, had its world premiere on February 13, 1996.

Mr. Larson died of an aortic aneurysm on January 25, 1996.