Bennett Lerner was born in Boston in 1944. He has premiered many pieces by major composers. In 1985, he performed the Copland Piano Concerto with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic in honor of the composer's 85th birthday. The program was nationally broadcasted Live From Lincoln Center. Among his teachers were Claudio Arrau and Robert Helps. In 2001, He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and music history from City University of New York in October. Dr. Lerner is currently a faculty member at Payap University in Chiangmai, Thailand.

His recordings include works by Alexander Tcherepnin, Samuel Barber,  Paul Bowles,  Marc Blitzstein,  Aaron Copland,  Roy Harris, Phillip Ramey,  William Schuman, Georges Auric,  Marcel Delannoy,  Ernesto Halffter,  Tibor Harsanyi,  Arthur Honegger, Jacques Ibert,  Bohuslav Martinu,  Marcel Mihalovici,  Darius Milhaud,  Francis Poulenc, Vittorio Rieti,  Henri Sauguet,  Florent Schmitt,  Germaine Tailleferre,  Alexander Tansman, Tison Street, Christopher Berg,  Chester Biscardi,  Donald Richie,  Leonard Bernstein, and Debussy. His complete set of piano works by Debussy is being released by Bridge.