Lars Anders Tomter

Lars Anders Tomter is one of today’s most outstanding viola virtuosos. Described by The Strad as the “Giant of the Nordic Viola,” he was born in Hamar, Norway. He began playing the violin at the age of eight and soon afterwards took up the viola. He studied both instruments at the Oslo Music Conservatory and the Norwegian State Academy of Music with Professor Leif Jørgensen. At the age of seventeen he made his debut on both violin and viola, before continuing his studies with Max Rostal and Sándor Végh. Prize successes at international competitions in Budapest and Lille marked the beginning of his international career.

Lars Anders Tomter appears regularly as a soloist on the world’s leading concert stages, where his performances are met with the highest acclaim from audiences and critics alike. These include the Vienna Musikverein, Carnegie Hall in New York and Wigmore Hall in London, as well as major concert venues throughout Scandinavia, Madrid, Budapest, Bonn, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, Paris, Rome, London, New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. He is also a frequent guest at renowned festivals such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Lockenhaus, Kissinger Sommer, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, SWR Schwetzingen Festival, Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival, Schubertiade, styriarte, the BBC Proms and numerous festivals across Scandinavia.

He has performed with leading orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, NDR Radio Philharmonic Hanover, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic and the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductors he has collaborated with include Marc Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dennis Russell Davies, Daniele Gatti, Manfred Honeck, Okko Kamu, Krzysztof Penderecki, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Muhai Tang and Hans Vonk.

In addition to his solo work, Lars Anders Tomter is deeply committed to chamber music and regularly collaborates with internationally renowned musicians. His repertoire is exceptionally broad and includes all major viola concertos. He has premiered numerous works, among them Illuminatio by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Under City Skin by Rolf Wallin, the Double Concerto by Anders Eliasson, and the symphonic viola concerto La Valle dell’unità by Lasse Thoresen. In 2017 he published a new version of Bartók’s Viola Concerto based on extensive source research. His recordings have appeared on the labels Dacapo, Chandos, Naxos, NMC, Simax, Somm and Virgin Classics.

Lars Anders Tomter is Professor of Viola at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He was founder and artistic co-director of the Risør Chamber Music Festival for 25 years and has been Artistic Director of Fjord Classics in Sandefjord since 2017. He plays a viola by Gasparo da Salo dating from 1590.