Peter Benoit

Peter Benoit (17 August 18348 March 1901) was a Flemish composer of Belgian nationality. Biography Petrus Leonardus Leopoldus Benoit was born in Harelbeke, Flanders, Belgium in 1834. He was taught music at an early age by his father and the village organist. In 1851, Benoit entered the Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained till 1855, studying primarily with FJ Fétis. During this period, he composed music to many melodramas, including the opera Le Village dans les montagnes for the Park Theatre, of which in 1856 he became the resident conductor. In 1857, he won the Belgian Prix de Rome for his cantata Le Meurtre d’Abel. The accompanying money grant enabled him to travel through Germany. In the course of his journeys, he found time to write a considerable amount of music, as well as an essay called L’École de musique flamande et son avenir. Fétis loudly praised his Messe solennelle, which Benoit composed in Brussels on his return from Germany. In 1861, he visited Paris for the production of his opera Le Roi des Aulnes (“The Erl King”), which, though accepted by the Théâtre Lyrique, was never performed. (He also composed a work for piano and orchestra called Le Roi des Aulnes.) Wh