Peter Bennett

has wide-ranging interests as a keyboard player and scholar. Born in the UK, he was organ-scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (studying with Nicolas Kynaston) before spending two years at the Hochschule für Musik, Vienna, where he studied organ (with Peter Planyavsky), improvisation and conducting. After earning a master’s degree in musicology at King’s College, London, he took up the harpsichord, studying with Jill Severs in London, and with Kenneth Gilbert at the Academia Chigiana (Siena, Italy) and privately in Paris. Establishing himself in London, Mr. Bennett then worked with numerous modern and period orchestras and ensembles (Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, Northern Sinfonia, Gabrieli Consort, London Baroque), as well as pursuing his interests on the organ with the renowned 12-voice professional choir at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street.

Mr. Bennett was also founder and director of Ensemble Dumont, a group of singers and viol players which he directed from the keyboard and with which he toured, broadcast, and recorded across Europe: performances at the Bruges and Innsbruck Early Music Festivals and London’s Wigmore Hall were followed by broadcasts on the BBC, RAI (Italy), R3 (Belgium) and SDR (Germany) and two critically acclaimed CD recordings for Linn Records (including Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s and Critics’ Choice awards - see linnrecords.com). After earning a doctorate in musicology at Pembroke College, Oxford, Bennett moved to Cleveland, where he now plays organ and harpsichord with Apollo’s Fire, as well as with other modern orchestras in the region such as City Music, the Columbus Symphony and the Canton Symphony.

Mr. Bennett is also Associate Professor of Musicology at Case Western Reserve University where he teaches classes related to the Historical Performance program and pursues his research interests into the music and institutions associated with Louis XIII’s Paris (see music.case.edu/personnel/faculty/peter-bennett).
 

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