Arthur Benjamin

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Arthur Leslie Benjamin (September 18, 1893, Sydney – April 10, 1960, London) was an Australian composer.

Benjamin won a scholarship from Brisbane Grammar School to the Royal College of Music in 1911. After serving in the infantry and the air force during World War I, he became piano professor at the Sydney Conservatorium in 1919. He returned to England in 1921 to become piano professor at the Royal College of Music. Among his students at the Royal College was Benjamin Britten and he numbered Alun Hoddinott among his the successful composers he tutored privately. He died in 1960 of cancer. He was well known for his kindness and generosity to others.

Benjamin wrote many operas (The Devil Take Her, Prima Donna, and Mañana), orchestral works, songs and film scores. His best-known piece, taken from Two Jamaican Pieces, is Jamaican Rumba, composed in 1938, for which the Jamaican government gave him a free barrel of rum a year as thanks for making their country known. He also wrote the cantata "Storm Clouds" for the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934, remade 1956), as well as larger orchestral works (including a notable symphony).