Fiona Bennett

Composer : Pianist : Singer

Fiona was born in Cardiff in 1962; her dad, Des, took her to her first piano lesson at the age of four. At fourteen, she was awarded a scholarship to study piano and music theory at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and within two years, she was a regular performer on Welsh language television and radio, singing and playing her own material. She also composed jingles and incidental music for TV drama.

Having gained her LTCL performer’s diploma at the age of seventeen and upon completion of her A levels, Fiona was offered a place on the Music Graduate course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied piano, trumpet, orchestration, orchestral and choral conducting and music history. After graduating, she began working as a singer, pianist, songwriter and bandleader and in the late 1990s her function band “Route 66” was the preferred band for weddings and parties at Highclere Castle (TV’s Downton Abbey).

Fiona has two sons, Dominic and Zachary. In 2006, Zachary was diagnosed with high functioning autism so Fiona put her career on the back burner in order to help and support him through his early school years, attending courses and learning as much as possible about autism and Asperger’s Syndrome.

Zachary moved from his prep school to a local primary school in 2011 which brought about a new and picturesque school run through the Berkshire countryside. Fiona says the daily drive to Hampstead Norreys helped inspire her album A Country Suite as the village, with its 12th century church, primary school, community shop and pub has changed very little over the years.

In addition to the six-movement suite, the CD includes two other piano pieces, Tempus fugit and Tristesse and the final track is an original Welsh folk song called Tymhorau (Seasons) with lyrics by Nia Williams. With a nod towards Hubert Parry who composed Lady Radnor’s Suite in 1894, Fiona composed and dedicated her album The New Lady Radnor Suite to her friend, Melissa (The Countess of Radnor). Zachary and Melissa’s son, Dan, were friends when they attended Cheam School together.