Highlight Reel
Live Performance
Producers Choice Recipient for Acoustic Piano Performance of the Year – 19th Annual LA Music Awards
2010 Producers Choice Award – Motion Picture Song Placement of the Year – 20th Annual LA Music Awards
Margie Balter is a pianist, composer, writer, educator
and actor. Her list of credits and accomplishments is long and diverse. “Star” students include Holly Hunter, Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson, Sandra Bullock, Barbara Hershey, Jack Black, Greg Kinnear and many more. Balter’s original compositions have received critical acclaim from respected artists such as Taj Mahal and Thomas Newman. Her award-winning CD “Music from My Heart… Solo Piano Pieces by Margie Balter” won three LA Music Awards. Her compositions have been featured in movies such as DATE NIGHT, starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell, and BEAUTY SHOP starring Queen Latifah.
Margie Balter is an active member of the Playing For Change Foundation’s Advisory Board, and she and her students’ performance during their 2013 and 2014’s International Playing For Change Day was the highlight of PFC’s Los Angeles events.
Balter’s piano coaching career was catapulted when she signed on to coach Holly Hunter for the film THE PIANO. Hunter won every award that year including the Best Actress Oscar, for her performance. Following the success of THE PIANO, Balter coached Tom Cruise (INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE), Scarlett Johansson (THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE), Sandra Bullock (THE NET), Jack Black (THE HOLIDAY), Barbara Hershey (PORTRAIT OF A LADY), Kevin Spacey (BEYOND THE SEA), Sanaa Lathan (DISAPPEARING ACTS) and Greg Kinnear (THE LAST SONG).
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Balter has six credits in the film BEAUTY SHOP, starring Queen Latifah, in which she piano coached Paige Hurd and Djimon Honsou. She also composed the piece FINDING MY WINGS, featured prominently in Hurd’s piano recital scene, and she played and arranged solo piano segments for the film.
“Bluesie”, from her solo piano CD was featured on the hit show SCANDAL.
Other composing credits include US Olympic Committee film CITY OF GOLD, the score for the Sci-Fi thriller LIGHTSPEED, starring David Carradine and Karen Black, and numerous pop songs. Her solo piano piece WATCHING THE DAYS, described as “contemporary, lyrical, passionate, and beautiful” was published by Alfred Music in 2005 and the songbook accompanying her solo piano CD, “Music From My Heart” was released in 2013.
Balter has acted in numerous film, TV, stage and commercial projects, and her one woman show has been performed all over the country including at The Grove in LA and at Steinway Hall in NY.