Bio

     Jorge Bennett is a composer, a guitarist and a painter. He started taking guitar lessons at a young age with Panamanian guitarists Augusto Medina and Ernesto Montenegro.  In 1985, he received his high school diploma in Science, Literature and Philosophy from Colegio Javier. In 1987, he studied music composition and theory with Panamanian pianist Francisco Castillo.

 

     In 1990, he was accepted at the University Of North Carolina School Of The Arts, where he obtained his Bachelor in Music Composition studying with American composers Sherwood Shaffer and Lawrence Dillon. From 1995 to the present, he has been working at the Centro Educativo de Artes Diversificadas as a music teacher, and in his free time, he is either writing, composing or painting.

 

          His works include music for piano, guitar, saxophone, chamber music, and works for orchestra. Many of his works have been performed in the United States, and each year his compositions are performed at the annual composer’s concert done by the National Symphony Orchestra of Panama.

 

          In 2002, he was the winner of the international composition contest “Roque Cordero” with his work for solo guitar, “El Comienzo de Una Historia” (The Beggining of a Story).

 

          In 1998, he started painting with acrylics, and he has made three individual expositions since.

 

          Jorge Bennett also has an interest in writing and a few of his short tales have appeared in the collective book “Mudanzas” (Relocations). He is now working on a short novel which will be a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty old fairy tale.

 

          Jorge’s music and paintings have some influence from impressionist composers and painters; however, he considers his music to be neo-romantic.