Sean Bennett

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Sean Bennett (born February 14, 1979) is an American classical pianist originally from Downers Grove, IL.

He has publicly rejected purist classical interpretations in favor of more original performances which depart from the score. A former child prodigy, he performed Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto at age 14.^[1]^[2]^[3] ^[4] He went on to win numerous competitions^{[citation needed]} including a prize in the National Kosciuszko Chopin Competition at 17 before entering self-study at age 18. He has since become a public critic of competitions, suggesting that structural attributes inherent to large jury size cause outstanding but nonconformist artists to be eliminated in favor of non-offensive but technically solid musicians.^[5]^[6] He is noted^{[citation needed]} for being one of the youngest pianists - and one of the few - to have performed and recorded Vladimir Horowitz's famed piano transcriptions.

Bennett is also known^{[citation needed]} as one of the most downloaded classical pianists on the Internet, with albums "Classical Piano," "Transcriptions Live," and material from an out-of-print title "Teenage Hysteria" available on all major music download and purchase sites and on Youtube^[7]. He holds the distinction of being the only classical musician to have had a top ten selection on Download.com (5/2004).^[8]

Bennett also holds academic degrees from Harvard University and Cambridge University where he was a Gates Scholar and was elected the first Gates Scholar's Council Chair. By age 24 he had taught musicology, psychology, and neuroscience at both universities and researched linguistic sciences for Noam Chomsky at MIT. He is one of the few scientists to have researched how and why music repeats in thought.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]