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Richard Rodney Bennett
Biography
Richard Rodney Bennett (29 March 1936, Broadstairs, England – 24 December 2012, New York, N.Y.) was an English composer.
His mother was a composer who studied with Gustav Holst, John Ireland, and Constant Lambert, but gave it up once she was married. His mother continued to perform on piano and worked as a music reviewer.
Richard attended the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying composition with Lennox Berkeley and Howard Ferguson, as well as piano with Elizabeth Lutyens. He had already completed his third string quartet and a score for a documentary before he was twenty years old. He also spent summers in Darmstadt and was on scholarship to study with Pierre Boulez in Paris (1957-59). As a composition teacher he has taught intermittently with stints at the Royal Academy of Music (1963-65, 1994-2000) and the Peabody Conservatory (1970-71). In 1994, Bennett was invited to accept the international chair of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, a position he held for six years. Since 1979 he has lived in New York, New York.
He has composed for a wide number of genres including opera, ballet, chamber music, symphonies, and film music, including Murder on the Orient Express and Four Weddings and a Funeral. His works for winds include Morning Music (1986), Concerto for Ten Brass Players (1988), The Four Seasons (1991), and Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Orchestra (1993). As a pianist Bennett has collaborated with Thea Musgrave and jazz vocalist Marian Montgomery.
Works for Winds
- Concerto for Ten Brass Players (1988)
- Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Orchestra (1993)
- Fanfare on a 16th Century Tune
- The Four Seasons (1991)
- Jazz Calendar
- Midnight Music (1986)
- Morning Music (1986)
- Reflections on a Sixteenth Century Tune (1999)
- Travel Notes 2 (1980)
Resources
- Miles, Richard B. 2000. Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. Volume 3. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 517.
- Richard Rodney Bennett Page at Novello.
- Rehrig, William H. (2005). The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music: Complete CD ROM Edition. np: The Robert Hoe Foundation.