Frank Bencriscutto (September 21, 1928 – August 28, 1997), nicknamed "Dr. Ben," was an American conductor and composer of concert band music.
The tour culminated with a presidential command performance in the Rose Garden of the White House[6] and resulted in Dr. Bencriscutto being invited by Dmitri Shostakovich and the Ministry of Culture to be an honored guest of the Soviet Union the following year at the 1970 International Tschaikovsky Competition.
[8] After retiring from the University of Minnesota in 1993, Bencriscutto joined the faculty at the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo, Japan as a visiting professor and conductor of the Wind Ensemble until 1996.
His work "Sing a New Song" (1973) won the Neil A. Kjos Memorial Award for the most significant contribution to band literature.
Several of his compositions have become standards in the repertoire, including Let the Light Shine, Latina, Serenade for Solo Alto Saxophone and Band, Granite Rock, and Summer in Central Park.