Robert Russell Bennett

Winner of a posthumous special Tony Award in 2008, for his body of work as an orchestrator.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 64-65. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

He orchestrated the original 1965 Broadway production of "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever".

Won a Special Tony Award in 1957, for his body of work as an orchestrator.

His orchestration of "The March of the Siamese Children" for the stage version of "The King and I" was considered so excellent that it was the only one of his orchestrations for the stage production which was exactly duplicated for the 1956 film (although augmented for full orchestra).

He was affiliated with NBC's Project Twenty (1954) since 1954.

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".

From the 1920s to about 1965, he was the most prominent and (many people say) the best orchestrator of Broadway shows. He not only orchestrated all of the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows except for "Carousel" and the little-known and not very successful "Me and Juliet", but also many of Jerome Kern's shows (including "Show Boat", for which he not only created the orchestrations for the 1927 Broadway original, the 1932 revival, and the 1936 film version, but also some new ones for the 1946 and 1966 revivals). He also orchestrated most of George Gershwin's, Irving Berlin's and Cole Porter's shows, in addition to which he orchestrated most of the original stage version of "My Fair Lady" as well as Rudolf Friml's "Rose Marie", the film version of "Oklahoma!" and most of the music in the stage version of "Camelot".

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.