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Bennett was born at Sheffield, the son of Robert Bennett, an organist. Having lost his father at an early age, he was brought up at Cambridge by his grandfather, from whom he received his first musical education. He entered the choir of Kings College chapel in 1824. In 1826 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, and remained a pupil of that institution for the next ten years, studying pianoforte under W. H. Holmes and Cipriani Potter , and composition under Lucas and Dr Crotch. It was during this time that he wrote several of his most appreciated works, in which may be traced influences of the contemporary movement of music in Germany, which country he frequently visited during the years 1836- 1842Events February 21 John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine. March 5 Over 500 Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez invade Texas briefly occupy San Antonio and then head back to the Rio Grande. This is the first such invasion since the Texas Revolution. At one of the Rhenish musical festivals in DüsseldorfDusseldorf is the capital city of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 571,000 Dusseldorf is one of the largest cities in the Rhineland region and the ninth largest in Germany. Vital statistics Name: Dusseldorf Country: he made the personal acquaintance of Mendelssohnsymphony at the young age of fifteen. Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, always known simply as Felix Mendelssohn ( February 3, 1809 November 4, 1847) was a German composer of the early Romantic period. He was perhaps the greatest child prodigy aft, and soon afterwards renewed it at LeipzigLeipzig [ˈlaiptsɪç] ( Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk is the largest city in the federal state ( Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. The name is derived from the Slavic word (see Sorbian) Lipsk (settlement where the linden trees stand). It is s, where the talented young Englishman was welcomed by the leading musicians of the rising generation. At one of the celebrated GewandhausThe Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is a German orchestra based in Leipzig. It is named after the concert hall in which it is based, the Gewandhaus ("Cloth House"). Concerts in Leipzig date back to the early 18th century. They were first held in a private dw concerts he played his third pianofortePiano is a common abbreviation for pianoforte a large musical instrument with a keyboard (see keyboard instrument). Its sound is produced by strings stretched on a rigid frame. These vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers, which are activated by the concertoOrigin Etymology Concerto (from the latin concertus from certare to strive, also confused with concentus , in its most general sense, is a name for a piece of classical music in which there are two distinct groups of instruments, one larger than the other, which was received enthusiastically. An enthusiastic account of the event was written by Robert SchumannThis article is about the German composer. For the German-born French politician, see Robert Schuman; for the youngest person to go to the north and south poles, see Robert Schumann (record-breaker . For the American composer, see William Schuman. Robert, who pronounced Bennett to be the most musikalisch of all Englishmen, and an angel of a musician (copying Gregory's pun on Angli and Angeli). But it was Mendelssohn's influence that dominated Bennett's mode of utterance. A good example of this may be studied in Bennett's Capriccio in D minor. His great success on the continent established his position on his return to England. In 1834 he was elected organist of St Anne's chapel (now church), Wandsworth. In this year he composed his Overture to Parisina, and his Concerto in C minor, modelled on Mozart. An unpublished concerto in F minor, and the overture to the Naiads, impressed the firm of Broadwood so favorably in 1836 that they offered the composer a year in Leipzig, where the Naiads overture was performed at a Gewandhaus concert on the 13th of February 1837. Bennett visited Leipzig a second time in 1840- 1841, when he composed his Caprice in E for pianoforte and orchestra and his overture The Wood Nymphs. He settled in London, devoting himself chiefly to practical teaching. In 1844 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Captain James Wood, R.N. He was made musical professor at Cambridge in 1856, the year in which he was engaged as permanent conductor of the Philharmonic Society . This latter post he held until 1866, when he became principal of the Royal Academy of Music. Owing to his professional duties his latter years were not fertile, and what he then wrote was scarcely equal to the productions of his youth. The principal charm of Bennett's compositions (not to mention his absolute mastery of the musical form) consists in the tenderness of their conception, rising occasionally to sweetest lyrical intensity. Except the opera, Bennett tried his hand at almost all the different forms of vocal and instrumental writing. As his best works in various branches of art, we may mention, for pianoforte solo, and with accompaniment of the orchestra, his three sketches, The Lake, The Millstream and The Fountain, and his 3rd pianoforte concerto; for the orchestra, his Symphony in G minor, and his overture The Naiads; and for voices, his cantata The May Queen, written for the Leeds Festival in 1858. For the jubilee of the Philharmonic Society he wrote the overture Paradise and the Peri in 1862. He also wrote a sacred cantata, The Woman of Samaria, first performed at the Birmingham Musical Festival in 1867. In 1870 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. A year later he was knighted, and in 1872 he received a public testimonial before a large audience at St. James Hall , the money subscribed being devoted to the foundation of a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. Shortly before his death he produced a sonata called The Maid of Orleans, an elaborate piece of programme-music based on Schiller's tragedy. He died at his house in St. John's Wood, London.