French composer Enguerrand-Friedrich Lühl started his music studies as a pianist at the Schola Cantorum, and then completed his training by entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris aged 15. Three years later he obtained first Prize for piano. Parallel to his piano cursus he studied music analysis, chamber music, orchestral conducting, harmony and counterpoint. Speaking five languages fluently (and adding notions of Russian and Finnish), he describes himself as a cosmopolitan artist. Today, he leads three careers simultaneously, mostly as a composer and a pianist, considering multi-professionalism as the key to deep understanding of the Arts of sound.

The composer
Aged 15, he revised the piano quartet movement composed by Gustav Mahler, corrected and completed the unfinished Scherzo by studying the facsimile from Mahler-specialist Henry-Louis de la Grange (recorded in 2012 by the New-York Piano Quartet). A few years later, he added two more movements in the master’s style, in order to present to the audience a unique complete Mahler-quartet. This piece was first recorded in a double-pack together with his transcription of Mahler’s First symphony for piano solo for the Mahler-Jubilee in 2011. Young Lühl, at the time already prolific artist, has had the privilege meeting composers Marcel Landowsky and Henri Sauguet; the latter once told him to “seek the melody which resides within him”. Since then, he had been following this message ever since with passion and tenacity

His composer’s catalogue is now very impressive, to date reaching opus 230: 7 symphonies, 3 piano concertos, chamber music, various pieces for soloist and orchestra, around 200 original pieces for piano, orchestrations and arrangements, film music…

His opera “Unvergessen” (“Unforgotten”) in three acts based on a historical drama, was first performed ten times in January 2004 at Bolzano, the Tyrolean capital of Northern Italy.

Many years ago, he started working with the Vauban Association President of France (at the time Jacques Chirac’s and Nicolas Sarkozy’s mandates) for a series of commemorative works honouring the great French Marshall de Vauban (1633-1707) and the tercentenary of his death (2007). He was in charge for the musical part by having composed four great pieces: a Requiem ‘in memoriam Vauban’, a symphonic poem entitled ‘La Chamade’ for choir and orchestra which illustrates Vauban’s essay about the attack and defence of fortified citadels, a chamber symphony, a string quartet and a suite forsolo string entitled ‘Suite Royale’ (‘King’s Suite’) in the memory of Louis XIV. All these pieces were performed various times throughout France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malta, Finland, and wherever Vauban had acted as a military architect (among which the prestigious Orchestre de la Garde Républicaine and the Camerata de Bourgogne).

The pianist
After his studies and during the period from 1996-1999 he has taken part in 14 international competitions and plays at prestigious venues throughout Europe and obtained prizes at the Pontoise/France and Rome competitions.
For many years he has been working on Alexander Scriabin’s complete piano music. He has already given concerts featuring the preludes, poems, studies and the piano concerto. Recently, he specialised his performing interest around rare works by Rachmaninoff, planning a huge series of recordings with miscellaneous pieces

In 2006, he met Hollywood composer John Williams (author of all the soundtracks from the Steven Spielberg movies) and adapted Williams’ original orchestral scores for piano solo and two pianos, combining virtuosity and authenticity with great skill. This gigantic work represents 1,200 pages of handwritten music sheets. A first CD of a series has just been released with themes from Star Wars for two pianos.

His classical recordings are available at the music label POLYMNIE (www.polymnie.net). He plans to record his entire work (about 55 CDs), as well as a great number of new releases of works by Rachmaninoff and other composers.