William Bennett

William Ingham Brooke Bennett, who occasionally signed himself WIBB, entered the world in London on February 7, 1936. At boarding school he first played the recorder from the age of eight before turning to the flute four years later. In the capital he attended the Guildhall School of Music; to sidestep regular conscription he enlisted for three years in the band of the Scots Guards. At twenty-one a scholarship took him to Paris, where he studied with Jean-Pierre Rampal and subsequently Marcel Moyse.

Returning to Britain, he became principal flute of the BBC Northern Orchestra and later appeared as principal or guest with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. His first commercial recording, Celebration for Flute & Orchestra, appeared in 1989 and inaugurated a discography that eventually numbered roughly one hundred albums.

As a soloist and recitalist he traveled extensively, often collaborating with harpsichordists George Malcolm and Osian Ellis during a period when Baroque chamber repertory was still infrequently heard. Additional partners included Yehudi Menuhin, the Grumiaux Trio and I Musici; outside the classical sphere he worked from time to time with Jimi Hendrix and Wynton Marsalis. He introduced pieces by nineteenth-century composers Ferdinand Ries, Bernhard Romberg and Paul Taffanel as well as new scores written for him by William Mathias, Richard Rodney Bennett and Raimundo Pineda. His recordings of the core flute literature were issued on Decca, London and Hyperion.

For many years he taught at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and at the Royal Academy of Music, and he conducted master classes across several continents. In 1995 he received the Order of the British Empire and later accumulated further distinctions. Bennett died in London on May 11, 2022.