In a career spanning more than five decades, Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981) arranged more than 300 Broadway musical scores. Among his credits were Show Boat, Roberta, Sunny, Rose-Marie, No, No, Nanette, Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing, Face the Music, Carmen Jones, Finian’s Rainbow, Kiss Me, Kate, My Fair Lady and Camelot. He orchestrated seven of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musicals, including Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music; his arrangements for the 1955 film version of Oklahoma! earned him an Academy Award.

He also orchestrated and arranged Rodgers’s 13-hour television documentary score for Victory at Sea.

Bennett was a classically trained composer whose prolific output of original compositions includes symphonies, sonatas, a ballet, a concerto and an opera.