Terje Mikkelsen

Terje Mikkelsen’s conducting has been described by reviewers as” immensely compelling and dramatically powerful” and his control of sound, balance and textures as “masterly”.

Mikkelsen graduated from the Norwegian State Music Academy, and then he studied and received his diploma in orchestral conducting from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki where his teacher was the famous professor Jorma Panula. Since 1985 he studied and had a close collaboration with Mariss Jansons both in Oslo and St. Petersburg, and then Mikkelsen embarked on a musical journey conducting orchestras throughout the Eastern and Central Europe, Japan, China and Thailand.

Among his musical posts were such positions as: Chief Conductor and Music Director for Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, and consecutively: Music Director and Chief Conductor of Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, General Music Director of Thuringen Philharmonie, Principal Conductor of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio.
During Mikkelsen’s collaboration with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra he conducted more than 70 concerts with them outside Latvia; in Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Japan. With this orchestra alone, he has issued more than 25 CD recordings. He has appeared regularly with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, Novaya Rossiya Symphony Orchestra and has conducted a host of renowned orchestras.
Mikkelsen has conducted in most of the important halls in Europe, including the Berliner Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Munich am Gasteig, Alte Oper (Frankfurt am Main), Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Cologne Philharmonie, Barbican Concert Hall (London), Birmingham Symphony Hall, Auditorium National (Madrid) and many more.
Terje Mikkelsen has a large CD production with several orchestras such as Latvian National Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Thuringen Philharmonie, Ukrainian National Orchestra, Lithuanian National Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Trondheim Symphony orchestra and the Norwegian Radio orchestra. In total, this has resulted in close to 50 recordings.
In succeeding years, he toured Spain with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, thereafter toured the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra to Norway and to the United Kingdom where they performed a total of 15 concerts to packed concert halls with enthusiastic audiences. He followed up with a new UK tour, this time with the Czech National Symphony orchestra as well as releasing 2 CD, s with the Munich Radio Orchestra just before he took the Munich orchestra on tour to Spain.
In April 2015 and 2018 Mikkelsen was on tour to South America with The Russian State Symphony Orchestra (Svetlanov Orchestra) performing on the main concert venues in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Chile.

Other highlights of the last seasons includes the premier of a Chinese-Norwegian opera production based on Ibsen drama in Tianjin Grand Opera House as well as the concerts with Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra), Wroclaw Symphony Orchestra, Ho Chi Minh Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

In recent years Maestro Mikkelsen has recorded several highly acclaimed albums: “Fates Project” together with Keith Emerson, Marc Bonilla and the Munich Radio orchestra; a second album with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with unpublished music by Keith Emerson recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London.

Beside the artistic activity as a conductor Terje Mikkelsen started to give master classes for young conductors and from 2019 he is cooperating with Opera and Symphony Conducting Faculty of Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.

Jan 2020