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About
Georges Lentz is a contemporary composer and sound artist, born in Luxembourg in 1965, and is that country's internationally best-known composer. Since 1990, he has been living in Sydney, Australia. Despite his relatively small output and his reclusiveness, he is also considered one of Australia's leading composers. He spends part of each year at his secondary residence in Berlin.
In 2019, a new sound art project, the Cobar Sound Chapel, will be built in Cobar in Outback New South Wales. It will be a purpose-built venue to permanently house the 4-channel projection of Georges Lentz's digital string quartet, the 369-minute composition String Quartet(s) (2000-2019), as well as the venue for a new annual String Quartet Festival Weekend. The Cobar Sound Chapel will be designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Australian architect Glenn Murcutt in collaboration with the composer (2016-2019), with its architecture reflecting rhythmic and structural patterns found in String Quartet(s).
Born in Luxembourg City on 22 October 1965, Georges Lentz grew up in the Luxembourg town of Echternach. He studied at the Luxembourg Conservatoire and later at the Paris Conservatoire (1982–1986) and the Musikhochschule Hannover (1986–1990). In 1989, he began working on a cycle of compositions under the name "Caeli enarrant...". His music is being recognised increasingly around the world, with performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Carnegie Hall New York, Kennedy Center Washington, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Sydney Opera House. Many leading orchestras have performed his works, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra London, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Hallé Orchestra Manchester, Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Kölner Philharmoniker, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, ORF Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Warsaw Philharmonic, St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony... His orchestral work Guyuhmgan, from part VII of this cycle (Mysterium), was the foremost recommended work at UNESCO's 2002 International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. His latest compositions include a work for viola, orchestra and electronics called Monh written for German viola soloist Tabea Zimmermann, as well as Ingwe for solo electric guitar, written for the young Australian guitarist Zane Banks.
Being given to self-doubt and reclusiveness, Georges Lentz rarely publishes new works and rarely accepts commissions. He is said to retire to an abbey (Clervaux Abbey in Luxembourg) or the Australian desert to find inspiration and compose, and only very rarely gives interviews. Lentz didn't attend the 2009 APRA Classical Music Awards ceremony at the Sydney Opera House to accept that year's top prize for Best Composition by an Australian Composer, instead sending guitarist friend Zane Banks to pick up the award and read out his acceptance speech (21 September 2009). A 40-minute documentary about the birth of Ingwe which appeared on YouTube in May 2010 shows Lentz for a total of about 30 seconds.
In the 2012–2013 season, Georges Lentz was in residence at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Germany and collaborated with Jonathan Nott and the Bamberger Symphoniker.
In January 2015, a new orchestral work, Jerusalem (after Blake) was premiered by the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. In May 2015, a portrait concert of Lentz's music by the Munich Chamber Orchestra at the Pinakothek der Moderne included the world premiere of the definitive version of Birrung (1997-2014) for 11 strings. In November 2016, the final version of Jerusalem (after Blake) was premiered at Wien Modern.
Georges Lentz's music is published by Universal Edition in Vienna.