Catching up with AIMES Alumni Matthias Balzat

Matthias has been the recipient of an AIMES Emerging Talent Award, sponsored by Bellingham Wallace, in 2018 and the AIMES Music Award Winner, sponsored by Yamaha Home Entertainment in 2019.

I wanted to start my update with another humongous thank you to all involved in selecting me as an AIMES Awards Winner in 2019. I felt such an honour to have been selected, so a thank you to the Judges and of course also to my parents who have always supported and inspired me.

Since the beginning of March I have remained in Düsseldorf, continuing with my studies, which are for the time being carried out mainly online for obvious reasons, and trying to figure out a number of ways to be proactive for my career and the future. There have been a number of gigs I was able to be a part of, online collaborations with friends and family overseas, live streamed concerts, and professional recording sessions for competition applications.

Below is a video from a concert series I was invited to be a part of. It is a live streamed concert in the largest central church in the city of Düsseldorf „Johanniskirche“, alongside Blanca Gleisner and Wolfgang Abendroth.

I’m pleased to announce now that I have been accepted into the live rounds of the International Enescu Cello Competition, taking place in Romania at the end of August this year. Directly following that, I will be making my way to New Zealand again, in order to present concerts in Queenstown and Wellington, as well as other exciting opportunities which must remain confidential at this point, but I am looking forward to sharing the news when I can.

I am hoping to be able to travel back to New Zealand at the end of the year, and ideally be able to finally attend in person to a North Harbour Club event after unfortunately missing the Gala Dinner last year. Furthermore I am also looking to record my first solo Album with one of the top classical music producers in the country, among a number of other potential exciting engagements!

While we might be on opposite sides of the world, it was lovely to perform with my Mother and Sister, Brigitte (above) - music connects us, no matter where we might be.