Peter Benoit

Peter Leonard Leopold Benoit (born August 17, 1834, Harelbeke Flanders; died March 8, 1901), is a famous Flemish composer. His father and a local village organist were his first teachers. In 1851 Benoit entered the Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained 'til 1855, studying chiefly under FJ Fétis, During this period he composed music to many melodramas, and to an opera Le Village dans les montagnes for the Park theatre, of which in 1856 he became conductor.