Astrith Baltsan is an Israeli concert pianist and musicologist famous for her Beethoven interpretation, her unique concert style reaching out for wider audiences worldwide and her research of Hatikvah, Israel national anthem.
Biography
Family
Baltsan was born in Tel Aviv in 1956. Her mother, Dr. Rozelia Ruth Garti was a pediatrician who came to Israel from Sofia. Bulgaria, in 1949. Her father was the journalist and author :he:חיים בלצן|Hayim Baltsan, founder of the ITIM news agency and author of the Webster's New World Hebrew Dictionary. . Her grandfather Ben-Zion Baltsan was a biblical expert and her uncle :ru:Балцан, Иосиф Львович|Iosif Baltsan was a noted Moldavian poet.
Baltsan won the first prize in the 1984 Banff Concerto Competition in Canada. In 1984, Baltsan became a laureate of the Concert Artists Guild's competition NYC 1984. She performed at the Norfolk festival of Yale University, The Tanglewood Festival, the La Gesse Festival in France, the Tutzing Festival in Munich and the Ernen Chamber Festival in Switzerland. Astrith Baltsan returned to Israel in 1985 to join the faculty of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. She was a founder and music director of the Musica Nova Ensemble for new music, and recorded many original Israeli compositions dedicated especially to her. She performed as pianist, editor and music director of concert series with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, The Israel Festival in Jerusalem and the New Israeli Opera. In 1990 Baltsan started to develop her series "Classics in Personal View", in which she performs classical music masterpieces accompanied with live story-telling and explanations. The program also incorporates pop, jazz and other genre segments, and includes performances by guest artists. This series of concerts has been the largest of its type in Israel for the last 30 years. In 1996 Baltsan and her husband, Israeli composer Moshe Zorman, founded "Music Cathedra", a music college in the Enav cultural center in Tel Aviv. Music Cathedra is a recognized institute of professional development by the Israeli Ministry of Education. In 2000 Baltsan started collaborating with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta, a collaboration which continued from 2000 to 2019 including symphonic and chamber music projects and a TV series of youth concerts broadcast on Israel Chanel 1, 2003–2004. Baltsan tours by herself and also as a soloist with an orchestra in Europe, the US, Canada, Central America, Australia and South Africa. Her concerts are broadcast regularly on Kan Kol Hamusica, Israel classical channel. Baltsan and Moshe Zorman have three children; Itamar, Alma and Reut. Her son, violinist was the winner of the Tchaikovsky competition in 2011.
