Fiona Bennett
Fiona Bennett (born 1962) is a Welsh composer of classical music.[1]
Bennett was born in Cardiff and studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London. After graduating, she formed a band called Route 66, which performed at Highclere Castle.[2] and also sang with a jazz trio. She married businessman Bob Rae, and they had two children, Dominic and Zachary, before divorcing. Zachary was found to be suffering from autism in 2006, and Bennett gave up her music career temporarily to look after him.[3] She took up composing again at the age of fifty, and hired a studio to record some of her pieces under her own "Fab Music" label.
In 2014, Bennett began advertising her album A Country Suite on radio. The following year, she campaigned to get friends and relatives to vote for her music in the annual Classic FM "Top 300" listeners' poll; as a result, her piece "A Lad and a Lass" entered the station's "Hall of Fame".[4] In 2016, her "New Lady Radnor Suite" entered the Hall of Fame at no 231.[5]
References
- ^ Classic FM Composers: Fiona Bennett. Accessed 26 March 2016
- ^ Fiona Bennett official website. Accessed 26 March 2016
- ^ "A fresh start for Fiona", Newbury Today, 25 April 2014. Accessed 26 March 2016
- ^ "Online Campaign Brings ‘Hall of Fame’ Success For Fiona Bennett", BASCA website. Accessed 26 March 2016
- ^ Classic FM - Hall of Fame 2016. Accessed 26 March 2016