Gerald Bennett was born in 1942 in New Jersey (USA). He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1964.

From 1967 until 1976 he taught at the Basel (Switzerland) Conservatory, from 1969 until 1976 he was Director of the Basel Conservatory.

From 1976 until 1981 he was Department Head at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris.

In 1981 he took a position as professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Hochschule for Music in Zurich.

In 1983 he was one of the founders, and from 1986 until 1992 Secretary of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music (ICEM), member organization of the International Music Council of the UNESCO.

In 1985 he founded, with Bruno Spoerri, the Swiss Center for Computer Music.

Since 1993 he has been member of the International Academy of Electroacoustic Music of Bourges.

In 2005 Bennett founded and directed the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology at the Hochschule Musik und Theater, Zurich (today the Zurich University of the Arts).

He retired from his teaching and administrative obligations at the Zurich University of the Art in October of 2007.

His compositions are published by Edition Modern und Mnémosyne, recordings are published by Wergo and Jecklin, and his writings published by Gallimard, Oxford University Press, Eulenburg, MIT Press, and others.

He lives in Muttenz, Switzerland, outside Basel.