Important Information

William Bennett, OBE, Hon RAM, Professor, is a British flute player (born 1936, London to parents who were both Architects).
He started playing recorder aged 8 and started playing the flute aged 12, and he built himself a guitar aged 15.
He studied in London with Geoffrey Gilbert from the age of 15 at the Guildhall of Music and Drama and went to Paris on a French Government Scholarship aged 22, where he had lessons with Ferdinand Caratgé, Jean Pierre Rampal.
And in the same year he started working in his first principal flute position in the BBC Northern orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic).
Later he studied with Marcel Moyse.
He has played with most of the major British orchestras, including the BBC Northern (Philharmonic), Sadlers Wells Opera, London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
He has played and recorded with Chamber Music ensembles, including the Melos Ensemble.[1], Nash Ensemble, Vesuvius Ensembles, Prometheus Ensembles, English Baroque Ensembles.
In addition to making a Balalaika and a Guitar whilst at school from an early age, and dissatisfied with the intonation of his flute, he started to alter the position of the tone holes of his flute when he was 18 years old.
He invented the tuning patch, and then built his own flute aged 20.
He has been working to improve the scale of the flute ever since, and his continued work, in collaboration with other British flautists and makers, has helped to vastly improve the intonation of the modern flute.
There are many makers who have used William Bennett Scales : Altus, Jupiter, Jack Moore, Almeida, Tom Green, Miguel Arista, Juan Arista, Emmanuel, Emerson, Yamaha (Student model), Jonathan Landell, Tom Lacy, Andrew Oxley, Webb & Wessel and recently Elan, Eloy, Gemeinhart and Burkart.
As a soloist he has had partnerships with harpsichordist George Malcolm and pianist Clifford Benson and Harpist Osian Ellis, with whom he has extensively recorded, and to his solo recordings he has partnered with Yehudi Menuhin, the Grumiaux Trio, I Musici, the Academy of St.
Martin in the Fields, and the English Chamber Orchestra, and also has recorded with artists such as Jimmi Hendrix and Wynton Marsalis.
He has made over 100 CD's as a soloist.
He has received international acclaim and enthusiastic reviews in record and CD journals.
   Early in his career he made the first English recording of the complete Handel Flute Sonatas with Harold Lester, and of contemporary works including the Sonatine of Boulez, Berio's Sequenza, Messaien's Merle Noir, and Richard Rodney Bennett's "Winter Music" which was specially written for him.
In addition to recording the standard flute repertoire of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, etc., he has made pioneer recordings of many of the neglected 19th century works, such as music by Ries, Romberg, and Taffanel.
   He premiered the Concerto by William Mathias, the Concerto by Diana Burrell and the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra by Venezuelan composer Raymund Pineda, all of which were specially written for him.
He has his own record label : “Beep Records”.
He has been Professor of Flute in the Freiburg Hochschule of Music in Germany, and he teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
He is well known for his Masterclasses all over the world.
His highly acclaimed International Flute Summer School now has had successful reputation for 29 years.
In 2002 he was awarded the National Flute Association's "Lifetime Achievement Award" and in 2003 he was appointed the British Flute Society's "Flautist Laureate".  In 2004 he was awarded the title of " Flute of Gold" from the Italian "Falaut" Flute society.
In 2009 he was awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Chicago Flute Club.
He is the president of British Flute Society.
In January 1995 H.M.
The Queen presented William Bennett with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E) for his distinguished Services to Music.