Franz Benda was a Bohemian violinist and composer. He was the brother of Jiří Antonín Benda, and he worked for much of his life at the court of Frederick the Great. Benda was born in Bohemia at the town of Staré Benátky. Benda himself claimed to have been born 25 November, but baptism records show he was baptised three days earlier, on 22 November. His actual date of birth seems not to have been recorded, but it was probably no more than a day or two earlier than 22 November.