The Bruges-based composer and video artist Benjamien Lycke (°1989) has a passion for opera, choral work and multidisciplinary projects. He studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and completed the postgraduate Composing for Screen at the Royal College of Music in London. His graduation opera Acubens was broadcast in full on Belgian national television (VRT).
Through the collective SYNART, which he co-founded, he created the short operas Puck (London), Cyclops (Hamburg) and the multimedia war requiem Monu (Bruges). Lycke also composes for film — including the short films Without a Word, Somnium and Eximo, and the feature film Memento Mori — as well as for games and advertising (including Chanel and Deloitte). He also writes orchestrations and arrangements for the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Klara and the Belgian National Orchestra (À la vie, à la mort / Voor altijd).
With choreographer Talitha De Decker he worked as composer and videographer on the dance productions Tinkling I, Snap XL and Figure it Out. A long-standing collaboration connects him with the Kugoni Trio and soprano Emma Posman, with whom he previously created Flandria (Muziektheater LOD). He has also written for chamber ensembles such as Ataneres, Triotique and the Utopia Ensemble, with whom he recently made Miroirs (AMUZ).
As a videographer he created Le Carnaval des Animaux: The Movie (Queen Elisabeth Chapel, 2021) and contributed to the Belgian premiere of Schnittke’s ballet Peer Gynt (Klarafestival, Bozar and Belgian National Orchestra, 2022). His most recent project was the opera Crash Flight with Emma Posman, Julian Arsenault, Hannah Snow, Timotheus Maas, Desguin Quartet, Ataneres and Kugoni Trio.
Since 2023 he has held the business and shared artistic direction of the international company Theater Tol.