Thomas Lehn (b. 1958) is an author and performer of contemporary music. He studied record engineering and piano at the Music Academy of Detmold, completing his studies at the Music Academy of Cologne on classical and jazz piano, also taking part in the Studio for pianistic interpretation held by prof. Jürgen Uhde. He initiated, in the late 80s, Trio Dario and the Mengano Quartett, performing numerous first performances of commissioned works of the contemporary avant-garde. Parallel to his work as a pianist, his major and widely renown work has been performing and producing live-electronic music. His wide background as an interpreting and improvising pianist in classical, contemporary and jazz, and having been involved in numerous other projects like music theatre, dance, multi-media, and studio production, has developed an individual ‘language’ for electronic music. Thomas Lehn uses analogue synthesizers of the late 1960s, and since 1994 in particular the EMS Synthi A. This modular instrument allows him to spontaneously act in close contact with the various structural degrees of the musical process.
His discography enclosures about 80 CD publications, and he has appeared on major international festivals of contemporary musics and concerts tours in Europe, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, and the USA. His long-term collaborations include ensembles Konk Pack, Toot, Thermal, Futch, Mimeo, Speak Easy, 6IX, Vario-34, and duos with Marcus Schmickler, Tiziana Bertoncini, Gerry Hemingway, Paul Lovens, Frédéric Blondy, Urs Leimgruber and John Butcher. As the pianist and founding member of the ensemble]h[iatus, an ensemble for interpretation and improvisation of contemporary music, he has premiered commissioned works by Vinko Globokar, Peter Jakober, Steffen Krebber, Jennifer Walshe, and Anthony Pateras, besides performing compositions from the contemporary repertoire. In the recent years, Thomas Lehn also also become active as a synthesizer interpreter of electronic compositions, such as Boguslav Schaeffer’s Electronic Symphony at the Huddersfield hcmf in 2017, the world premiere of Éliane Radigue’s OCCAM VI for synthesizer solo at Berlin’s Berghain in 2012, and – together with Klangforum Wien – Austrian composer Peter Jakober’s “dort” for synthesizer and ensemble at musikprotokoll Graz and the Vienna Konzerthaus.
