photo © Miriam Klingl

About me

Artist's name | Roots | Logo | Bio

Artist's name

When I was fifteen, I played one of my songs in a concert at school. The other day my latin teacher came in and said before the class that he liked my music since it was "so lyrical". A classmate hearing that subsequently called me "Lyhrus" (with a looong 'y') . And that spread immediately.
I disliked the nickname because it most notably was used by other students to provoke me. But I could not get rid of it until the end of my schooltime.

Years later I felt the need to publish some new musical projects by using an artist's name. I remembered that nickname from school and decided to use it, as I regarded the name as short and appropriate and having a history that would remind me to my roots as a composer.

– Lyhrus, 19th April 2020

photo © Miriam Klingl

The blossooms of yearning: my artistic roots

I have many musical roots, but each delves into another soil. I love the chants of the european high culture as well as the hook lines of excellent pop songs or the electronic soundscapes of ambient music. I find my material in the melancholy of the Portuguese Fado as well as in the catchy tunes of the German Volkslied. The neo-classical cool of the Scandinavian north is in my music just as the whirling rush born from the Viennese Waltz.

Often, I don’t understand why this or that musical material comes into my mind, demanding to be used. As a composer I want to be not in the way but give a form to what flows up from the roots, edging towards the light.
My task is to let it all blossom. These blossoms have many hues, many shapes. But they all are nourished by the spirit of melody – and by the yearning to be touched, to touch others, to touch you.

photo © Bernd Blome

Spaces, stage, and holy center: The logo I use

A sphere compound by four open rings, symbolizing immersive real or imagined spaces. These spaces are kind of a core of my soloistic and collaborative work, my projects, and concerts, in the end: my need to get people together and let them feel at home.

Furthermore, as a puzzle picture a square appears in the center of the four rings. It is symbol of the defined space, the stage. As it shows emptiness in the middle of the logo the puzzle picture also becomes a symbol of a holy center.

Biography

After finishing classical music studies at the Staatliche Musikhochschule Freiburg in 1995, Lyhrus founded a non-professional music theater company called Theaterhaus in a village next to Freiburg and worked there for four years. In 2002 he founded in Freiburg the Lusorium Klangraumtheater, a sound theater company. He wrote and performed Das Winterbett in collaboration with Ullo von Peinen (Freiburger Stadttheater) and the John Sheppard Ensemble in 2003.

In the same year Lyhrus moved to Berlin to study at the SAE Berlin. He obtained a diploma as audio engineer in 2004. Beside that he started working as a graphic designer for orchestras, choirs and soloists throughout the world.
In 2008 Lyhrus re-founded the Lusorium in Berlin. Between 2009 and 2011 he wrote, produced and performed The garden and Quarrtsiluni, two full-length programmes combining spacial radio plays and live music for choirs, soloists, bands, and speakers.
In 2017, after working for 15 years as graphic designer for customers, Lyhrus decided to bring this work to an end. In the same year he walked on the Pilgrim's route to Santiago de Compostela.

When he came back from Spain in October 2017, he founded NOYA Theater of Sound and NOYA Chorus in Berlin to focus upon a new vision of spatial concert projects with non-professional singers. In 2018 the NOYA Ensemble came into being, a group of eight professional vocalists. Both groups rehearse and perform many of their concerts at the Osterkirche Berlin. In September 2018 Lyhrus performed the concert programme Vigilia in Berlin in collaboration with The NOYA Ensemble for the first time, followed by several concerts in Berlin and Potsdam between 2018 and 2020. In November 2018 the first staged concert of NOYA Chorus took place, called The book of hours. It combined choral works, electronic soundscapes, piano music, and performance. This project was followed up by the second programme The banquet which was performed in November 2019.

To get things concerning the public more simple and clear, the NOYA Ensemble altered its name into The Lyhrus Ensemble in 2020. This marked a separation of Lyhrus' work with professional and non-professional musicians. Taking advantage of the limitations due to the pandemic he started to work on re-arrangements of his compositions to make them part of the new concert programme ›The Pilgrim Age‹. This programme has been performed by the Lyhrus Ensemble in concerts since October 2021.

Due to a number of problems caused by the pandemic Lyhrus decided to terminate his work as artistic leader of NOYA in the beginning of 2022 and started to focus on further Lyhrus projects such as the recording of ›The Melophilia Cycle‹, of ›The Pilgrim Age‹ in collaboration with the Lyhrus Ensemble, and a first electronic studio project called ›Clock Works‹, an EP, that was released in early 2023.
In 2020 Lyhrus had started a collaboration with polish soprano soloist Dorota Bronikowska, who appears also as soprano singer of the Lyhrus Ensemble. Their first song programme ›Vespertine Blooms‹ was interupted by the pandemic, but Lyhrus and Dorota decided to continue their collaboration on this programme and started performing Vespertine Blooms in April 2023 in Berlin and Potsdam.