Deja Terzic was born in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia, on september 14th ,1970. With his parents he moved to Germany in 1972 , to a small town in Bavaria, Kirchenlamitz, where he has attended school. Dejan has moved to Nuremberg in 1990 after finishing school, where he started to study jazz and contemporary music at the Meistersinger Conservatory.
After spending there the first year he decided to visit new york in order to attend some of the best schools in jazz. In summer 1991 he joined the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. The faculty programme featured jazzgreats like Jimmy Cobb, Tal Farlow, Don Friedman. Apart from those, the workshop was directed by guitarlegend Attila Zoller, so Dejan got in touch with some of the world's greatest players. Especially Attila Zoller was a strong influence.
In New York City Dejan got a member of the Drummers' Collective, a pure drum school, where he studied with Marvin "Smitty" Smith and Mike Clark. Another strong influence was Bill Stewart, whom he had studied with. Back in Germany in Autumn 1991 Dejan changed to the Hermann Zilcher Conservatory in Würzburg, where he studied with Bill Elgart.
In spring of 1992 he became a member of the Bavarian First Herd, the Bavarian youth jazz orchstra conducted by Dusko Goykovic. In this band Dejan Terzic made his first steps as a professional session drummer. In the Summer of 1993 Dejan visited the Vermont Jazz Center again, after Attila Zoller invited him to come to the U.S. This time on the workshop Dejan studied with Bob Gulatti. After the workshop he again joined the Drummers' Collective in New York City, stayed for a few weeks and studied with Duduka Da Fonseca. Back in Germany Dejan toured with the Hubert Winter Quartet after winning the prize as the young Bavarian "jazz lions". in February 1994 Dejan got a member of the German Youth Jazz Orchestra which was conducted by Peter Herbolzheimer. In spring 1994 Dejan joined the jazz juniors festival in Krakow, Poland, and won the Best Drummer Award of the festival. Right after that he played a tour with Pete Yellin and recorded his first CD. In Autumn 1994 he toured with the Hubert Winter Quartet in Sweden and recorded his second cd live at the International Jazz Festival in Umea.
Back home in Germany Dejan founded the Sunday Night Orchestra, a big band that was supposed to play twice a month in Nuremberg. The band was a big success, and still is nowadays, which has lead to wider recognition throughout the whole country. In January 1995 Dejan Terzic recorded with the Bavarian First Herd his third CD. In Spring Dejan won the Best Musician Award of the International Jazzfestival Oberkochen. In May '95 he made the first prize on the Jazz Juniors Festival in Leipzig, which included to record another CD.
In July 95 Dejan has toured and recorded with Jerry Bergonzi and The Sunday Night Orchestra, which was meanwhile known as the shooting band of the year. In Autumn 95 Dejan has toured with the German Youth Jazz Orchestra in Romania. Right after that he again spent a few weeks in New York, where he had his first engagement with the Pete Yellin Quartet at one of New York's best jazz clubs, the Visiones.
In january 96 the Sunday Night Orchestra completed ist first CD along with the recordings with Jerry Bergonzi. In Summer Dejan Terzic toured with the sextet Ugetsu in Germany and Greece where the band recorded its first album. In Autumn 96 the Sunday Night Orchestra toured with Maria Schneider, one of the world's best composers for large ensambles, after Dejan had met her in New York and invited her to come to Europe.In December 96 Dejan received the cultural prize award by the city of Nuremberg for his activities with the Sunday Night Orchestra.
In Spring 97 he toured a whole month through Europe with Ugetsu. In July 97 Dejan Terzic got to play with a few of the world's best saxophone players like Lee Konitz and James Moody on the international saxophone workshop in Marktoberdorf. In the following year Dejan recorded his first album as a bandleader. For this occasion he could invite saxophone legend George Garzone; among with Roberto Di Gioia on piano and Dietmar Fuhr on bass: after a short tour and after the appearance at the Nuremberg Jazzfestival in 98 the recording was finished within 6 hours.
Soon after the debut album came out on the label Naxos Jazz, and was highly reviewed worldwide. According to the Dublin Times, it was one of the top ten best jazz CDs in 99. In the same year Dejan got to play with the Italian pianoplayer Antonio Farao, who was the shooting star in the European jazzscene. After their first musical experience Antonio decided to invite Dejan to play in his trio. In november 1999 they played successfully the tour of the rising stars through Europe, with Mike Formanek on bass.
In the year 2000 Dejan Terzic got to play with famous Italian trumpet player Enrico Rava. Enrico invited Dejan to join his band for a few festivals though Europe. The same year Dejan formed his next band, European Assembly, consisting of some of the finest players in Europe, with Jens Winther on trumpet (Denmark), Tony Lakatos on sax (Hungary), Antonio Farao on piano (Italy), and Martin Gjakonovski on bass (Macedonia). After the appearance at the Jazzfestival Nuremberg Dejan decided to record his next album with this quintet. The recording was done in spring of 2001. In the same year Dejan got to play with Swiss trumpetplayer Franco Ambrosetti, whom he met while playing with the Antonio Farao Trio. In the next years Dejan became a often requested sideman that led him to tours and festivals all over the world. So he played in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, France, Greece, Croatia, Luxembourg, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Australia and Reunion. He is a regular member of the Antonio Farao Trio, Franco Ambrosetti Group, and Dusko Goykovic Quintett. Meanwhile he has recorded over 30 CDs as a session musician. Throughout all these activities, Dejan Terzic has established himself as one of the most requested drummers in the european jazzscene.
