About The Composer
Biography
Atlanta-based composer Erik Grant Bennett was born into a musical environment, his father an accomplished classical pianist and mom one of six sisters who sang together. Possessing natural talent he was quite successful in a variety of musical endeavors throughout his childhood, including creating arrangements for his chorus as early as middle school and by high school, accompanying the choir at times. He was selected to the Governor’s Honors program as a rising junior, a rarity, and began obsessively creating songs and scores every moment after school (and sometimes during). He often recalls narrowly escaping his senior year because he was writing scores on paper during some of the less engaging classes.
Following in the footsteps of one of his musical heroes Alan Silvestri, Erik attended Berklee College of Music on scholarship where he would earn a Cum Laude Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Scoring. After college, Erik composed, arranged, recorded, and performed anything that paid the bills – and even a few projects that didn’t. But In the process, he not only continued honing his composition and songwriting skills, but has also become an accomplished producer and engineer. While Erik does create his themes and basic outlines on the piano, he still prefers, unlike many composers today, to do his orchestrations with pencil and paper – later they are entered into Sibelius and printed for the musicians.
Erik recently built a state-of-the-art recording studio and viewing theater in his home, where he Is able to create, arrange, and produce music across many genres. With an Emmy-nomination under his belt as well as two published stage musicals and an almost inconceivable number of songs and concert scores, Erik believes he is just getting started. He lives in Georgia with his wife Elise, a wonderful musician and opera singer, and their four children.
