Willi Leinen

Willi Leinen is a Berlin-based composer, guitarist, and producer working at the intersection of film, contemporary music, and audio-based storytelling. He trained at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and studies philosophy at Leipzig University, a discipline that informs the depth and rigour of his compositional practice. His honours include the 2012 klangsüchtig Award for Best Film Score, a scholarship from the Federal Republic of Germany for a project arranging Schubert songs for two electric guitars and tenor, and the 2019 US Songwriting Award. His collection Four Homages was published by AMA Verlag Berlin in 2021. As a film and audio composer, his credits include the score for Mord im Heiligen Wald (dir. Birgit Kohl), podcast work for Kings of Football, and collaborations with Pantheon Pictures Prague and directors Tim Spreng, Dino Muric, and Sachith Karunaratne. As one half of the neoclassical guitar duo TMBM, he has performed at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and Konzerthaus Berlin, with music featured in the US television series The Blacklist.