About Ulrich Lehensteiner

Rooted in Vienna.
Written for today.

Ulrich Lehensteiner is an Austrian composer whose work is rooted in Vienna’s enduring musical tradition while speaking with a distinctly contemporary voice. His music seeks to unite structural craftsmanship with emotional immediacy, creating works that communicate directly with contemporary listeners while remaining artistically ambitious.

His compositions span piano solo, chamber and orchestral music, and are characterised by lyrical expression, dramatic narrative and an orchestral imagination that extends even to his writing for solo piano. Rather than treating the past as something to be preserved, Lehensteiner regards it as the starting point for new artistic creation. His works seek not to recreate earlier styles, but to build upon enduring musical ideas through an individual contemporary voice.

Lehensteiner studied composition with Rina Furano from 2015 to 2019 and later completed studies in music theory at the Prayner Conservatory Vienna. Since then, his work has gained increasing recognition through performances, recordings and international awards. Following a Composer Portrait concert in Vienna in 2023, he received four awards in the composition category of the Bach International Music Competition in 2024. His music has since been broadcast on ORF III and Radio Stephansdom and has been recorded on three dedicated releases: Piano Sonata in B minor (2025), performed by Haley Myles, Fantasia Fanatica (2026) and Eight Melodies (2026), both performed by Tim Goss. Recent concert activities include performances in Austria and the United Kingdom, with appearances at St Alfege Church and the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford.

Although primarily active as a composer, Lehensteiner regularly appears as pianist in performances of his own music. This close relationship between composition and performance informs his artistic voice, allowing musical ideas to develop directly from the instrument while retaining an orchestral sense of colour, structure and dramatic pacing.

At the heart of Lehensteiner’s work lies the conviction that craftsmanship alone does not create art. Technical mastery becomes meaningful only when it serves beauty, emotion and thought. His music therefore seeks to unite intellectual substance with immediate emotional communication, creating works that reward repeated listening while remaining accessible to contemporary listeners. Through each new work, he hopes to contribute to the continuing evolution of the concert repertoire while creating music that remains meaningful, engaging and deeply human.