Tal Balshai

http://www.talbalshai.com/en/files/tal-balshai-portrait-2.jpg Tal Balshai

Tal Balshai lives and works in Berlin, Germany as a pianist, composer and arranger. Both classical and jazz musicians appreciate his work and perform his compositions on different occasions. (Sandy Evans, Claus Reichstaller, Paulo Cardoso, Thomas Zoller, Angela Denoke, members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Chamber-music ensemble of the “Brandenburger Symphoniker“, Anne-Theresa Albrecht and many more)

Tal Balshai was born in 1969 in Jerusalem, Israel. He studied classical and jazz piano in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Berlin and New-York. In 1992 Tal Balshai moved to Berlin, Germany to study sound engineering at the "Üniversität der Künste" in Berlin. (recording and producing serious music). At an early stage of his studies he found himself drawn more to playing and composing his own music than producing other artists. He played on the local Berliner jazz scene and founded his own trio in 1995.

In the following years Tal Balshai worked as both a musician and a sound engineer/producer. His work as recording producer led him back to Israel, where he produced many CD’s featuring music by contemporary Israeli composers such as: Abel Ehrlich, Israel Sharon, Michael Wolpe, André Heidu, the modern chamber music ensemble “Kaprizma” and many others. At the same time his work as a pianist and composer began bringing him recognition and success from audiences and the press.

His work composer and pianist started demanding so much of his time that he was forced to give up sound engineering and producing completely.

In the early years of the new millennium Tal Balshai worked extensively. He composed and directing a very successful German show called “Vivace”. Tal had the opportunity to show all of his many talents as a composer, bandleader, pianist and conductor in this production. “Vivace” toured in many parts of the world including Zimbabwe (Haifa Festival 2004, Harare), Sweden (opening ceremony of the cultural centre in Helsinborg), England (National Theatre Festival, London), Scotland (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Austria (opening ceremony of the theatre Oval, Salzburg), Italy (Theatro della Tosse, Genua) and the USA (Seattle International Children’s Festival). A lifelong dream came true in 2004 when the show played for a whole month in the Broadway theatre “New-Victory-Theatre” in New-York-City.

Tal Balshai is currently working in and on different projects in music and theatre. He composes for singers and instrumentalists striving al the while to fuse all his diverse musical influences in his own unique style.