# Trinelise Væring

Trinelise Væring (born July 2, 1965) is a Danish singer-songwriter, lyricist, guitarist, and bandleader. She works in her native Danish as well as English. Over the course of her career she has explored several genres in collaborations as well as on her 7 solo releases.

## Music career
### 1990s

Væring first gained acclaim as a jazz artist in the 1990s. She was widely praised by Scandinavian and German jazz critics, though she was often described as a non-typical jazz vocalist.
She debuted as a vocalist and lyricist on the album People, Place, Times & Faces (1993), recorded with an all-star Scandinavian 10-piece orchestra led by jazz saxophonist Fredrik Lundin. The album was nominated (1994) for a Danish Grammy Award as Jazz Album of the Year.
As a solo artist, she spent the 1990s touring and recording with some of the most respected Scandinavian jazz musicians, including Bobo Stenson, Mads Vinding, Alex Riel, and Carsten Dahl.
Between 1995 and 2000, she released three albums under her own name (When I Close My Eyes (1995), In So Many Words (1997), When the Dust Has Settled (2000)), featuring original material with English lyrics. The albums were orchestrated with a piano trio and additional instruments added through guest appearances.
When I Close My Eyes was widely recognized as a fresh and different approach to vocal jazz. Rather than performing standard tunes, Væring offered a singer-songwriter’s personal take on songwriting within a modern jazz setting.
For In So Many Words, Væring received an honorary end-of-year award from the Danish Arts Foundation and included in the end-of-year-list in Svenska Dagbladet.
In 1997, in a further collaboration with Lundin, she released Dos Mundos / Desde el Norte, on which she primarily sang in Spanish. This album included several interpretations of songs associated with the late Argentinian roots singer Mercedes Sosa.

### 2000s

On Trespassing (2003), an art-rock-influenced album, Væring transitioned to a more pop- and rock-inspired style of songwriting. She also shifted the orchestration of her bands from the acoustic piano trio format to a more classic pop-rock setup, featuring electric guitar, bass, and drums.
In the mid-2000s, she composed an entirely new repertoire for herself, culminating in her first release in Danish, Lystfisker (2008), which she followed with Umanérlig (2011). Both albums received high praise in major Danish newspapers, earning acclaim from rock critics such as Klaus Lynggaard and Kim Skotte.

### 2010s

As bandleader, writer, and co-writer for Offpiste Gurus, Væring and Fredrik Lundin released two indie-jazz albums: Offpiste Gurus (2010) and In Case of Fire (2016). During these years, Væring was often referred to as a "Danish Rickie Lee Jones." The band toured Scandinavia and Northern Europe between 2000 and 2016.
As a solo artist, she released Umanérlig (2011), a follow-up to her 2008 album Lystfisker, again based on a guitar-driven rock trio format with lyrics in Danish.
As a bandleader, writer, and co-writer, Væring collaborated with Finland-Swedish pianist Jonas Berg to create a song cycle for themselves and the Norwegian baroque ensemble Barokksolistene. This project premiered at the Wundergrund Festival in Copenhagen in 2010. Væring received another honorary end-of-year award from the Danish Arts Foundation for the Oh Purity song cycle, which was also the subject of a documentary, Oh Purity in Watching Landscapes, produced for Danish National Television DR-K. The songs were later released on the EP Oh Purity (2014).
In 2018, Væring released Du går ind ad en dør. The repertoire was originally written as a commission for a single performance at the festival Modern Jazz Days. The instrumentation for this project included Hammond organ and a horn section. The festival band subsequently became Væring’s new touring band, with which she toured across Denmark until the Covid pandemic brought performances to a halt.

### 2020s to present day

As bandleader, writer, and co-writer for the 10-piece Tone of Voice Orchestra, Væring and Fredrik Lundin released the self-titled album Tone of Voice Orchestra (2022). This genre-bending fusion of their Scandinavian roots and roots music from other parts of the world received glowing reviews in print and online media from across the globe. The album won a Danish Jazz Awards nomination for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, and earned three nominations in roots categories (New Roots Artist of the Year, Roots Track of the Year, and Roots Composers of the Year). Additionally Væring and Lundin were nominated for a Carl Prisen award as Roots Composers of the Year.
As of December 2024, Tone of Voice Orchestra remains active, having announced in October 2024 on social media that a new album is on the way.
In 2023, Væring released two singles in Danish, recorded with her pre-Covid band. Social media posts have hinted at a new album with this band.
In October 2024, Væring announced her upcoming solo album, A Songwriter’s Odyssey, recorded with producer John Raham in Vancouver, Canada. This album, featuring English lyrics, is described by Væring as an alt-country project and is slated for release on January 31, 2025. As of December 2024, two singles—"I’m Not a Quitter" and "When We Were Young"—have already been released.

## Music-Related Activities Offstage

As a teacher: Værings has taught, vocal-, songwriting- and ensemble classes at the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen, Vestjysk Musik konservatorium and Musik Högskolan in Malmö, Sweden.
As a debater: She has participated in public debates across various media on topics related to authors' rights and diversity in the music industry.
As a podcaster: In 2019–2020, she produced the podcast Værings Værksted. In 2024, she began hosting the podcast Værings Musiklytteri, released via Danish Radio Folk.
As a music journalist/critic: Væring is active as a music critic for Gaffa Magazine and has also written for Danish music media outlets such as Jazz Special, All That.., side33.dk and POV-International.

## Personal life

Væring grew up in Kokkedal, north of Copenhagen, as a happy adopted child of Danish parents, a topic she has spoken about publicly on several occasions.
In 1987 she married Danish jazz saxophonist and composer Fredrik Lundin. Together they have two children: Oskar Salvatore (born 1999) and Mercedes Jakobine (born 2003).
Education
In her 20s, she studied European Ethnology at the University of Copenhagen and Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in Copenhagen. From 1990 to 1991, she studied Jazz and Contemporary Music at the New School in New York.
She earned a master’s degree in Professional Communication from Roskilde University in 2014.

## Discography

Studio album full length only
* People, Place, Times & Faces (1993) as Fredrik Lundin, Trine-Lise Væring +9
* When I Close My Eyes (1995) as Væring/Stenson/Vinding/Riel
* In So Many Words (1997) as Trine-lise Væring
* Desde el Norte (1997) as Dos Mundos
* When the Dust Has Settled (2000) as Trine-lise Væring
* Trespassing album (2003) as Trine-lise Væring
* Lystfisker (2008) as Trinelise Væring
* Offpiste Gurus (2010) as Offpiste Gurus
* Umanérlig (2011) as Trinelise Væring
* Oh Purity Released as EP and Concert/documentary “Oh Purity in Watching Landscapes” (2014) as Oh Purity
* In Case of Fire (2016) as Offpiste Gurus
* Du går ind ad en dør (2018) as Trinelise Væring
* Tone of Voice Orchestra (2022) as Tone of Voice Orchestra
As featured artist
* Sange featuring Trine-Lise Væring (2008) with the Crossover Ensemble poems by Paul la Cour