The electronic properties, specifically, the dipole and quadrupole moments and the ionization energies of benzene (Bz) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and the respective binding energies, of complexes of Bz(HCN)(1-4), have been studied through MP2 and OVGF calculations. The results are compared with the properties of benzene water complexes, Bz(H2O)(1-4), with the purpose of analyzing the electronic properties of microsolvated benzene, with respect to the strength of the CH/pi and OH/pi hydrogen-bond (H-bond) interactions. The linear HCN chains have the singular ability to interact with the aromatic ring, preserving the symmetry of the latter. A blue shift of the first vertical ionization energies (IEs) of benzene is observed for the linear Bz(HCN)(1-4) clusters, which increases with the length of the chain. NBO analysis indicates that the increase of the IE with the number of HCN molecules is related to a strengthening of the CH/pi H-bond, driven by cooperative effects, increasing the acidity of the hydrogen cyanide H atom involved in the pi H-bond. The longer HCN chains (n >= 3), however, can bend to form CH/N H-bonds with the Bz H atoms. These cyclic structures are found to be slightly more stable than their linear counterparts. For the nonlinear Bz(HCN)(3-4) and Bz(H2O)(2-4) complexes, an increase of the binding energy with the number of solvent molecules and a decrease of the IE of benzene, relative to the values for the Bz(HCN) and Bz(H2O) complexes, respectively, are observed. Although a strengthening of the CH/pi and OH/pi H-bonds, with increasing n, also takes place for the Bz(H2O)(2-4) and Bz(HCN)(3-4) nonlinear complexes, Bz proton donor, CH/O, and CHIN interactions are at the origin of this decrease. Thus CH/pi and OH/pi H-bonds lead to higher IEs of Bz, whereas the weaker CHIN and CH/O H-bond interactions have the opposite effect. The present results emphasize the importance of both aromatic XH/pi (X = C, O) and CH/X (X = N, O) interactions for understanding the structure and electronic properties of Bz(HCN)(n) and Bz(H2O)(n) complexes.