Astrith Baltsan
Astrith Baltsan is a decorated Israeli pianist. Baltsan pursued new approaches of appealing to larger audiences by incorporating classical, pop, and jazz music, as well as poetry, literature, film, video clips, and dance into a coherent narrative. She both studied and taught at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University in the 1980s. In 1986 Baltsan was among the founding ensemble of the Musica Nova Consort, the first established contemporary music ensemble in Israel; she served as its artistic director until 1992. Since 1990 she has developed her unique chamber music lecture-concert. Her ability to draw large audiences to such concerts has established her as a major and unprecedented educator on the Israeli concert scene.
Background
“Astrith Baltsan is an incomparable phenomenon on the musical scene in Israel,” wrote the judges who awarded her the Tel Aviv Municipality 2001 Rosenblum Prize for the Stage Arts. Her original lecture-concert series—multimedia events—became the largest classical chamber music series in Israel. Her imaginative story-telling style of presenting classical music brought new audiences to the chamber music concert hall—approximately five thousand subscribers who had previously rarely frequented non-symphonic concerts.
Astrith Baltsan was born in Tel Aviv on October 24, 1956. She has two siblings, Revital (b. 1953) and a twin brother, Avikam (b. 1956). Her mother, Ruth Garty (1925–1999), was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and in 1949 emigrated to Israel where she met and married Haim Baltsan. Ruth was a physician.
Astrith’s father Haim (1910–2002), the oldest son of Ben-Zion Baltsan (1885–1941), Hebrew writer and Bible critic, was born in Kishinev and emigrated to Palestine in 1935. He was a writer and journalist and founder of ITIM, the Israeli News Agency.
Career
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Selected Works by Astrith Baltsan
“Intervals by Mordecai Seter,” “Timbres by Mary Even-Or,” and “Contrasts by Moshe Zorman.” A Guide for Performance of Israeli Piano Works. Edited by Miriam Boskovich and Yona Rosental Bogorow, 152–166, 232–240 and 248–259 (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 1987.
Baltsan’s articles include historical context and technical details.
“Ron Weidberg’s Music: Impressions and Observations.” Israel Music Institute News 91/3: 5–8 (1991).
The best general article on Weidberg to date.
“Josef Tal’s Joseph.” New Israel Opera Magazine (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: June 1995.
An article on the opera Joseph by the founding father of Israeli music, Josef Tal.
“Hakhnisini Tahat Kenafekh: Twenty Compositions on a Bialik Poem (from Ben-Haim to Miki Gavrielov and Rita).” Mafteah (June 1999). This music teachers’ magazine is published by the Israel Ministry of Education and edited by Lia Lior.
Baltsan, Astrith (program author, pianist and narrator) and Danny Dror (film director). Five programs of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Zubin Mehta, televised by Herzliyyah Studios for the Israeli Education Channel, 2000–2002: “An Anthem Is Born,” on the sources of “Ha-Tikvah”; “To the New World,” Dvo?ak and American music, jazz and blues; “Violin Zone: A Tribute to Jascha Heifetz,” pieces for violin; “Swan Lake,” music legends in classical and ethnic music; and “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Moussorgsky’s original, Ravel’s orchestration, rock and popular versions.
Letters from Mozart (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: 2003 (forthcoming).
Includes her translations of Mozart letters and a CD with Mozart’s music played and narrated by Baltsan.
More on Astrith Baltsan
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