Kort bio, norsk (Short bio, Norwegian version):
Lars-Erik ter Jung debuterte som fiolinist i Oslo i 1980, og kan vise til en omfattende virksomhet som solist, kammermusiker, ensembleleder og improvisatør.
De senere årene har han studert direksjon, bl. a. hos Jorma Panula og George Hurst, og er nå mer og mer virksom som dirigent. I denne sammenheng har han jobbet med et variert repertoar. Han har dirigert BIT20 Ensemble på konserter i London, Darmstadt og Alexandria, Egypt, han har dirigert Forsvarets Stabsmusikkorps ved flere anledninger, bl.a. på Oslo Kammermusikkfestival og nå sist i produksjonen "Fröhliche Werkstatt" i januar i år. I 2004 dirigerte han bl.a. orkestre i Sverige og England, og han urfremførte kammeroperaen "Benk med og utan hund" av Jon Rørmark og Ragnar Hovland, med Telemark Kammerorkester, som han er kunstnerisk leder for.
Fra 1981-94 var ter Jung 1. konsertmester i Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester. Siden 1994 har vært frilanser og i stor grad initiert og administrert egne prosjekt. Han har gjort seg bemerket gjennom flere CD innspillinger, bl.a. "JKL" (1999), "Hexa" med ter Jung sekstett (2000) og "Twitter Machine" med duoen Twitter Machine (2004).

Short bio, English version:
Besides being one of Norway's leading violinists, Lars-Erik ter Jung is now extensively building up his career as a conductor. Since 1998 he has studied conducting with Jorma Panula and George Hurst. He has conducted various kinds of repertoire through working with among others BIT20 Ensemble from Norway doing contemporary music in London, Darmstadt and Alexandria, Egypt, and the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces doing works by Stravinski and Dvorak at the Oslo International Chamber Music Festival, and conducting Strauss and Schönberg with them in January this year. Last year he conducted orchestras in Sweden and England and premiered a new Chamber Opera by Rörmark / Hovland with Telemark Chamber Orchestra, where he is the artistic director.
Since his debut as violinist in 1980, ter Jung has played as soloist with the major Norwegian orchestras, and he has been the artistic leader of numerous chamber music and chamber orchestra projects. He was the principal concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 1981 to 1994.
Last year he released the CD "Twitter Machine", with contemporary music for violin and guitar with duo Twitter Machine. ter Jung gave the first performances of all pieces included on this recording, as he did with the music on two of his four previous CDs, "JKL" (1998) and "Hexa", with the ter Jung sextet (2000).

Bio, LARS-ERIK ter JUNG, English version:

Lars-Erik ter Jung, Norwegian violinist and conductor, made his debut as a violinist in 1980, accompanied by The Norwegian National Youth Symphony Orchestra (Ungdomssymfonikerne) conducted the legendary Karsten Andersen, with a grant from The Norwegian Concert Institute. ter Jung has performed extensively throughout Norway as soloist and chamber musician, he has been the artistic leader of numerous chamber orchestra projects and has worked intensively with contemporary music, also including improvisation. Besides being one of Norways leading violinists, Lars-Erik ter Jung is now more and more engaged in conducting.

He studied the violin with Leif Jørgensen in Oslo, Max Rostal in Switzerland and Camilla Wicks in the USA.
During the period 1981-1994 he was principal concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and this experience has led to several appearances as concertmaster in Norway and Sweden, like with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, The Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Since 1998 ter Jung has taken intensive conducting studies with Prof. Jorma Panula, participating in master classes in Finland (Vaasa City Orchestra), Russia (Moscow Symphony Orchestra) and Romania (Brasov Philharmonic Orchestra), and with conductor George Hurst and his assistant Denise Ham at the Canford School in England, where he has been participating in 5 courses since 1998, and ter Jung is now extensively building up his career as a conductor.
He has conducted productions with Kristiansand Chamber Orchestra, Tromsø Symphony Orchestra, and The Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Engagements also include several productions with the 5 professional military wind bands in Norway, including the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces.
In 2000 he conducted the internationally acknowledged BIT20 Ensemble at The Bergen International Festival and on tour to Darmstadt, Germany. In 2001 he conducted this ensemble with choir and soloists in St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London in Arne Nordheim's "Descending". In 2002 ter Jung conducted BIT20 Ensemble at the broadcasted inauguration ceremony of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and premiered and recorded "Odyssé" by Norwegian composer Knut Vaage, which was recently released on a CD and DVD presenting the city of Bergen.
Conducting engagements in 2004 included, among others, a new production with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, two productions with the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, one with soloist Marita Kvarving Sølberg and one at the Oslo International Chamber Music Festival doing works by Stravinski and Dvorak. Last year he also conducted The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra, England, and premiered a new Chamber Opera by Rörmark / Hovland with Telemark Chamber Orchestra, where he is the artistic director.

Since 1992 he is the artistic director of Telemark Chamber Orchestra, a regionally based string ensemble, whose profile is to promote new music along with performing the standard repertoire. During a ten years period, ter Jung and Telemark Chamber Orchestra has premiered twelve commissions of various genres. Three of these works, "Nostos" by Bjørn Kruse, which ter Jung recorded, as soloist and leader, let out on EP in 2003 (on Fabra / Afontibus), "Nyslått" by Henrik Ødegaard with soloists Per Anders Buen Garnås and Torgeir Straand on hardanger fiddle and "Omriss" by Gisle Kverndokk with the chamber choir "Cor" (choir-master Torbjørn Dyrud) are featured on a new CD with TKO which will be released in June this year. A new commission by renowned composer Antonio Bibalo will be presented by ter Jung and TKO in the fall 2005.

Since 1994 he has been a full time freelancer, a choice he made to be more free in his priority of musical activity, and he has initiated and administrated a number of projects and concerts. In 1995 he established the string sextet "ter Jung sextet", with whom he has premiered six new works by the Norwegian composers Knut Vaage, Rune Rebne, Frank Nordensten, Magnar Åm, Jostein Stalheim and Nils Henrik Asheim; the latter work was premiered at the Oslo Chamber Music Festival in 2001. Four of these works are included on the CD "Hexa" which was released in 2000. ter Jung's collaboration with the guitar player Thomas Kjekstad has led to the appearance of five new works for violin and guitar, among them "Twitter Machine" by Mark Adderley. These pieces are performed on the highly praised CD "Twitter Machine", which was released in February 2004 (on Fabra / Afontibus).
Lars-Erik ter Jung has also been working with free improvisation. The chief concept of the "JKL" trio, which he formed in 1996, was by electronical integration and treatment of sounds from acoustic sources to make use of the material in the process of "instant composing" in a free-tonal language. "JKL" released a CD in 1999, which was highly praised in the influential British periodical "The Wire".
The experience gained through creative improvisation lead to further challenges, and in 2000 ter Jung composed the music for the performance "Blind Witnesses", a dance production presented in the aesthetic ruins of the Halsnøy Monastery in Norway.
In spring 2004 a new piece for string orchestra by ter Jung was performed by Sunnhordland Chamber Orchestra.

ter Jung has a lot of experience from being artistic leader as concert master of several chamber orchestras, and this work is still an important part of his occupation.

During the 1980s ter Jung performed several concerts with the eminent Norwegian soloists Truls Mørk, Leif Ove Andsnes and Lars Anders Tomter. Other musical collaborations led to two CDs in the early 1990s, "Dan fagraste viso pao joræ" (1993), a collection of ter Jung's adoptions of Geirr Tveitt's Hardingtonar for violin and guitar, with guitar player Njål Vindenes, and, in 1995, "Quasi una Sonata", a collaboration with pianist Einar Henning Smebye, presenting 20th century music for violin and piano.
ter Jung has performed at several Norwegian music festivals, such as The Bergen International Festival, The International Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger, The Autunnale Festival for Contemporary Music (now the Borealis festival), Bergen, Nordic Improvisation Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Ilios Festival for contemporary music and Ultima, Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. He has played as soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. He has also given chamber music recitals in Sweden, Iceland, UK, Germany and France.

Through 1997 he was leading the Bergen section of the Norwegian section of the ISCM.
In 1994 ter Jung received the Edvard Grieg Award.