"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
Don't Miss "Big Shot: A Billy Joel Tribute"!
Get ready for an unforgettable night of music with “Big Shot: A Billy Joel Tribute” featuring Erik Grant Bennett! Join us on October 25th & 26th at 8pm for a concert that will have you singing along to all your favorite Billy Joel hits. Book your tickets now and be part of this incredible experience!
Honey Bee Entertainment is an independent record label, production house, and film composition company founded in 2012 by industry veterans (also husband and wife) Erik Grant Bennett & Elise Bennett. By creating and releasing an impressive and eclectic catalog of music over many years, Honey Bee has built and maintained a standard of excellence. In an effort to ensure the continuance and vitality of great musical artists into the future, Honey Bee also originated Buford Academy of Music, a “training ground” for young singers, instrumentalists, and performers.
Meet the Owners
Music has been a constant companion for both Elise and Erik throughout their lives. Understanding its intrinsic value and power, they aspire daily to reach, connect, and ignite others, elevating the human experience through music.
A true master of vocal technique, Elise is not only an instructor, but a diagnostician. Most struggle to grasp the “what,” while she understands the “why.” She gets all of the intricacies and obstacles of the human voice and often says she “can teach anyone to sing.” Her father is a pianist of jazz and classical origin, and her mother once sang with the Gwinnett Choral Guild, so Elise was never a stranger to music. During her grade school years, she studied voice, piano, and violin, sang with Young Singers of Callanwolde (the great Robert Shaw directed them at times), participated in LGPE and many festivals, including the National Federation of Music Clubs and a winning performance for Best Literary Trio at the GMEA conference. She would eventually attend on scholarships the music school at Georgia State University, receiving a Cum Laude degree in Vocal Performance.
As a professional, Elise has performed in over 30 different operas, such as Carmen, Tosca, Aida, La Boheme, and The Marriage of Figaro as a member of The Atlanta Opera Chorus. She has dedicated her life to mastering her craft through deep insight and strong discipline. She is also a tremendous pianist, an avid note reader, and a skilled instructor across all styles and genres. A rare departure from her usual classical world, Elise was a guest artist on the song “Unbearable Ache,” a country/pop ballad written by her husband Erik for his album “Throwback.” She has also recorded background vocals on many of the Honey Bee label’s releases.
As if raising four children and having her own business were not keeping her busy enough, Elise also plans to release her own album of original “neoclassical” songs on the Honey Bee label in the next year. But her absolute and truest sense of joy and purpose comes from working with young people and helping them break down all types of barriers. Her energy is infectious, and her work is more than a job…it’s her calling.
A child of a classical pianist father and a mom who was one of six singing sisters, Erik heard music early and often. His lyric writing abilities emerged in middle school, where he excelled greatly in English, Literature, and creative writing. By high school, Erik was playing piano hours a day, singing anywhere there was a stage, and studying chord and theory books. By senior year, he had been selected to All-State Chorus six consecutive years and the exclusive Governor’s Honors program. Erik was offered a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he would earn a Cum Laude Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Scoring.
Whether writing and producing music for other recording artists, composing instrumental pieces, creating scores for film and television or musicals for stage, Erik is a prolific maker of music. His writing credits include projects for companies like UPS, Coca-Cola, Nascar, Fox5, and the Olympics, to name a few. He continues to write scores for documentaries and short films and has earned an Emmy nomination as well as several Telly Awards along the way. He has sung the National Anthem for the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Erik released a song called “We Were There” for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games. He had another successful single in 1999 with the tearful ballad, “Leanna’s Song (I Guess This is Goodbye),” which he performed on morning shows like Good Day Atlanta and Peachtree Morning – the song was also featured on Star94, an Atlanta pop station. After spending the better part of a decade composing and producing other artists, Erik has returned to releasing a few of his own projects. In fact, Erik had at least one of his singles from his CD “Bulletproof” playing on the radio every month for two consecutive years.
His song “Send Down (Song for Africa)” was inspired by the wonderful work of Little Dresses For Africa (www.littledressesforafrica.org). And his latest single, “Hope Is Contagious” is gaining attention as an uplifting response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Today Erik teaches a carefully selected group of advanced students while primarily focusing on composition, production, and placement of music in TV and film. Having accomplished much in his career, passing on his knowledge, training, and experience to young artists is immensely rewarding work.