Dr. Lehnhoff studied violin privately with José Santos Paniagua from 1964–72 and composition and piano with Harold Blanchard from 1970–72 in Guatemala City and then studied analysis with Friedrich Heller and composition and electronic music with Klaus Ager at the Salzburg Mozarteum from 1972–76. Lastly, he studied composition with Conrad Bernier, conducting with Donald Thulean and musicology with Cyrilla Barr, Helmut Braunlich, Ruth Steiner, and Robert Stevenson at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he earned his MA in 1987 and his PhD with distinction in 1990.

Among his honors are the Premio Centroamericano 15 de septiembre (1985), the prize Artista del Milenio (2000), the prize Líder 2001 for outstanding achievement from the Consejo Empresarial de Guatemala (2001), and two awards from the Unión de Compositores Guatemaltecos (Composer's Day Competition Prize, 2005, for Tardes de feria; First Prize in the Nacionalidad competition, 2005, for Chaaj: El juego de pelota Maya). He also served as a juror for the Premio Tomás Luis de Victoria (2002). His music has been heard in Argentina, Austria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the USA, the UK, and Venezuela.

As a conductor, he served as music director of the Millennium Orchestra in Guatemala City from 1998–2004 and has served as music director of the Coro Nacional de Guatemala since 2002. In addition, he has served as director of and violinist in the Millennium Ensemble, a group devoted to Hispanic-American art music, since 1992. With the Millennium Ensemble and the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Guatemala, which he conducted from 1994–96, he made a series of CDs with première recordings of 64 works by 23 Guatemalan composers from 1570 to the present time, commissioned by the Historia General de Guatemala (1992–99, Amigos del País). He currently serves as first guest conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica.

As a scholar, he has edited three series of previously unpublished scores by Guatemalan, Portuguese and Spanish composers, and has written numerous articles for journals and reference books. His early books are Espada y pentagrama: la música polifónica en la Guatemala del siglo XVI (1986), Rafael Antonio Castellanos: vida y obra de un músico guatemalteco (1994) and Música y músicos de Guatemala (1995). His recent books are Huellas de la guerra en el arte musical (1999) and Creación musical en Guatemala (2005, Universidad Rafael Landívar/Fundación G&T Continental).

He founded the Music Department at the Universidad de Valle de Guatemala and served as its chair from 1991–98. He organized two international youth orchestra festivals in 1996–97 and the Foro de Compositores del Caribe in 1999. He served as Director of Cultural Affairs at the Universidad Rafael Landívar in 1985–86 and founded its Institute of Musicology in 1990, of which he has since served as director. He co-founded the Consejo Iberoamericano de la Música in Madrid in 1994 and founded the Consejo Guatemalteco de la Música in 1999, which is now a member of the UNESCO International Music Council, and has since served as its president. In addition, he has given concerts and lectures at more than 30 festivals in the Americas and Europe and taught as an invited professor at the Universidad Nacional de Heredia in 2007.

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