Alev Lenz

Alev Lenz is a composer, songwriter and producer. Based between London and Germany, she dug her heels into the ground to plant her own musical signpost – somewhere between sophisticated pop, etheral "vocal-scapes" and music honouring her heritage outside of the 12-tone scale. Daughter of a Turkish actress, activist and artist and an Oscar-winning German engineer, Alev – who’s name translates as Flame - has always danced to her own rhythm. Her rich catalogue of compositions fuses distinctive musical worlds into something that is authentically hers. Her honest lyrics, instinct for melodic hooks and intriguing harmonics form deep and compelling songs that hold their own, both on record and in the concert hall.

Alev Lenz is one of the first two composers in residence to work for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus in 2024. She will be working on new music and lyrics for the choir, which will be performed at the BYC's final concert "Spring Sings" in May 2024. In June 2024 her first score for theatre will premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London. 

After performing works from her latest album ‘3’ with Alev Lenz at Kaufman Music Center in NYC, Grammy Award winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus commissioned her to write a piece for their project. She Is Called: Dear Stranger is a tone poem, a letter between friends and strangers, and an exploration of gender, identity, and longing by a community of extraordinary young artists.

In 2022 Alev wrote seven vocal pieces for Grammy-Award winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth developed at MassMoca and sung during their summer residency which will have its world premiere at the Barbican Center in London in October 2023.

Her second commissioned piece for Brooklyn Youth Chorus premiered at the NYPHIL Open Weekend at Geffen Hall and two more new works for the choir premiered in May 2023 in NYC during Ecstatic Festival and are sung by the choir during all their season’s concerts.

Her piece Truth is told, not fed was recently peformed by Brooklyn Youth Chorus at the UN for the 2023 Youth Event for the International Day of Peace and Alev will be one of two of Brookly Youth Chorus' first ever composers in residency for the season on 2023/24. 

Alev is frequently working in close collaboration with other artists such as renowned sitarist and 9-time Grammy-Nominee Anoushka Shankar, with whom Alev co-wrote the title track for the Grammy-nominated album ‘Land of Gold’ as well as co-writing and co-producing Shankar's latest album 'Love Letters' - which culminated in three sold out shows with Shankar at London’s Southbank Centre in December 2019 and a Grammy-nomination for the 63rd GRAMMY Awards in 2020.

Alev is currently working on her fourth album, more commissioned vocal work, lending her voice to scores, a new electronic collaboration, a musical and a two-women satirical music show among other projects.  Alev is also a passionate mentor and educator and has spoken at various universities, such as USC Thornton School Of Music in Los Angeles and Trinity Laban in London, NYU in New York and Berklee in Boston.

Awards & Nominations:
2022 Between US GRAMMY Nomination (role: songwriter)
2020 Love Letters GRAMMY Nomination (role: producer, songwriter, vocalist, musician, engineer)
2017 Land Of Gold GRAMMY Nomination (role: songwriter, vocalist)