leiken is a singer and performance-maker based in Brooklyn, NY. Both a medieval and new music specialist, their practice fuses these disparate worlds exclusively through collaboration and frequently explores queer spirituality, identity, and ephemera.
A sought-after vocalist for concert, opera, and theatre, leiken has performed all over the world alongside iconic artists such as Ran Blake, Sequentia, Eve Beglarian, and Four Larks. Their extensive performance experience has brought them to legendary venues like the Getty Villa Museum, Carnegie Hall, Hong Kong's Queen Elizabeth Stadium, the Théâtre du Chatelet, and the Hirschhorn Museum.
leiken also loves fermentation, textiles, and swimming.
"a terrifying tone transforming the songs of our centuries into the rantings of madmen. Essential, in all meanings of the word; a divine, disquieting artifact of the folkways."
Lukas Papenfusscline "sang magnificently and accompanied himself on the piano.... it was once again “The Newest Sound Around” that we were hearing, fascinated."
- CultureJazz.fr on France duo tour with Ran Blake
"I have to mention being especially moved by ... the mellifluous whimsy of Lukas Papenfusscline as the king’s Fool"
- Night After Night on King Lear
"Whenever Leiken (Lukas Papenfusscline) sang, the dancers seemed to blur; his voice is so profound that your eyes flutter shut."
- Dance Enthusiast on Smile
"Lukas Papenfusscline ... mutters eerie apocalyptic prophecies ... resembling an addict’s delirious ranting."
- Opera Wire on Oblivion