Richard Rodney Bennett

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett CBE was an English composer, jazz pianist, and occasional vocalist. Born on 29 March 1936 in Broadstairs, Kent and raised in Devon, he was a pupil at Leighton Park School and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Howard Ferguson and Lennox Berkeley. Bennett lived in New York City from 1979 until his death there in 2012. With over 200 concert hall works and 50 film and television scores, he was a significant figure in music. Bennett, who had been a student of Pierre Boulez in Paris, developed a unique dramato-abstract style, blending avant-garde techniques with jazz and later, a more tonal idiom. He received a CBE in 1977, was knighted in 1998, and was influential in both the classical and jazz music scenes.