Richard Rodney Bennett (born 1936) was one of the most gifted and versatile composers to emerge from Britain's cultural renaissance after World War II, writing for films and television, opera and concert audiences.

Richard Rodney Bennett was born in Kent and received his musical training as a scholarship student at the Royal College of Music, where he was a pupil of Lennox Berkeley and Howard Ferguson. When Bennett was 18, he composed a piano sonata that revealed his unusual talent. It is recognized as being an important contemporary work.

In 1957 a scholarship awarded by the French government enabled Bennett to study with Pierre Boulez in Paris for two years. Although Boulez was one of the leaders of the musical avant-garde, he did not impose his style on the young composer. Bennett returned to England with a complete mastery of serial techniques, but he never used them in a doctrinaire manner...