William Sterndale Bennett

BENNETT, (Sir) William Sterndale. b. Sheffield, 13 April 1816; d. London, 1 February 1875. He was the son of Robert Bennett (1788-1819), organist of Sheffield Parish Church from 1811. After his father’s death, Bennett was brought up by his paternal grandparents in Cambridge, where his grandfather, John Bennett (1754-1837) was a bass lay clerk in the choir which served the colleges of King’s, St John’s and Trinity. At the age of seven, Bennett became a chorister in King’s College Chapel and from the age of nine he studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included William Crotch, Charles Lucas and Cipriani Potter. The success of his Piano Concerto no. 1, opus 1, performed in...