Robert Russell Bennett

Composer, arranger, musician and conductor Robert Russell Bennett studied piano with his mother and other instruments with his bandmaster father, and also with Carl Busch and Nadia Boulanger (honorary DHL, Franklin & Marshall College and Guggenheim fellowships). He began conducting at 11, was organist at a Kansas City theatre and a violinist and violist with string ensembles. He came to New York in 1916 and joined G. Schirmer. In World War I he conducted army bands, and in 1922 he became an arranger for Broadway musicals; his productions included "Rose-Marie", "Sunny", "The Band Wagon", "Of Thee I Sing", "The Cat and the Fiddle", "Face the Music", "Show Boat", "Oklahoma!", "Kiss Me, Kate", "South Pacific", "The King and I", "The Sound of Music", "My Fair Lady", and "Camelot". He was affiliated with NBC's Project Twenty (1954) since 1954. He joined ASCAP in 1935 and was the former president of the NAACC. His compositions include "Abraham Lincoln, Sights and Sounds (RCA Victor awards)", the opera "Maria Malibran", "Hollywood (on a League of Composers commission)", "8 Etudes for Symphony Orchestra (on a CBS commission)", "Charleston Rhapsody", "Concerto Grosso", "Stephen Foster", "Armed Forces Salute", "Symphonic Songs for Band", "Suite of Old American Dances", "Song Sonata for Violin, Piano", "Organ Sonata", "Hexapoda", "4 Freedoms Symphony", "Celebration", "Symphonic Story of Jerome Kern", "He is Risen (Emmy award)", "The Enchanted Kiss" and "An Hour of Delusion (1-act operas)", "Suite for Band Track Meet", and "Commemmoration Symphony".