Ed Bennett has been played on NTS in shows including Tafelmusik w/ Francesco Fusaro, featured first on 21 October 2019. Songs played include Slow Motion Music.

Ed Bennett was born in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. His music, which has been described in the press as “anarchic” (Irish Times), “manic” (Classical Music), “brutal” (The Guardian) and “beautiful” (Gramophone) often combines acoustic, electronic and multimedia elements.

After several formative years working in his home town of Bangor as a self-taught musician, playing in rock bands and stacking supermarket shelves, he pursued composition studies with a diverse range of musical personalities and has lived in recent years in Birmingham, Berlin and London.

He studied composition and electronic music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has also participated in international courses in Holland and Germany. He is currently based at Birmingham Conservatoire as a research fellow and teacher of composition. In 2008 Ed Bennett was artist in residence at the Irish Cultural Institute in Paris.

His work has been commissioned and performed internationally by many diverse artists, ensembles and organisations including the BBC, RTE, PRSF and Music Network. Noted performers of his work include the BBC Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, the London Sinfonietta and Sound Intermedia, Crash Ensemble, Orkest de ereprijs and the Fidelio Trio. He also performs with and directs his own ensemble, ‘decibel’, which is dedicated to the performance of new and experimental cross-discipline work.

Ed Bennett’s works have been featured at many festivals including Gaudeamus (Amsterdam), Huddersfield, Bourges, the BMIC Cutting Edge Series and Park Lane Group (South Bank). String Factory for violin and electronics was selected for the residence category at the 2002 International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art at Bourges, France and El Tigre received an honourable mention in Insulae Electronicae 2003.

Recent performances and commissions include a work for violist Garth Knox and ensemble (Excavation, an Arts Council of Ireland commission), for Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro (Clockwork Monkey Machine – a Music Network commission) and a work for orchestra and electronics for the Ulster Orchestra (all of this used to be trees – a BBC R3 Commission). His music has been widely broadcast on radio and CD’s have been released on the Lorlelt, Enzyme, CMC and NMC labels.