Pittsburgh Tribune 2007

By Mark KannyTRIBUNE-REVIEW CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC Friday, August 31, 2007 Margie Balter says her life's "been a very wild ride," and she wouldn't have it any other way.

The Squirrel Hill native, who now calls herself a "Hollywood girl," returns home Saturday to play selections from her new album, "Music From My Heart," and sign CDs at Borders Books and Music in Monroeville. Balter, who began acting, dancing and piano lessons when she was 4, also has been writing music since she was a child. Now she's best known as the "piano teacher to the stars" for her work in the film industry, which began with coaching Holly Hunter for the 1993 film "The Piano." "I don't really teach faking it -- I teach how to play," says Balter, who's worked on 13 films since "The Piano," and with actors such as Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock, Barbara Hershey, Kevin Spacey, Susan Sarandon and Scarlett Johansson. "These big stars think they can do everything, and they try," she says. "They don't want to fake it. Tom Cruise doesn't want to fake it. He is so scheduled, he even schedules his meals. He practiced an hour-and-a-half a day for five weeks to play in 'Interview with the Vampire.'" Balter says it was thrilling to her to pick up the phone at home one evening and hear Cruise's voice saying, "Margie, it's Tom. We're on the speaker phone. Is this how it goes?" Then she heard him play the music she was teaching him, counting the beats out loud as he played. Even as a child, Balter knew the entertainment business was her calling and that she would end up in Los Angeles, because she loves glamour. "I grew up totally crazy about musical theater," she says. "I had my own theater group, 'The Playwrights,' in fourth, fifth and sixth grades. I wrote all the plays, all the music, starred in, directed and booked all the events." Balter also directed the senior class play at the Winchester Thurston School. "That was really fantastic for me," she says. "Winchester allowed me to be myself." But Balter had a less positive experience at the drama department of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. After one year, during which she didn't get a single role, she decided to leave the school and acting to concentrate on piano. "I moved to Seattle because I ... didn't know anyone there," she says. "I'm a totally gregarious and fun-loving person, and that doesn't go with being a pianist. Pianists are loners, and I'll go out to five parties in one night."

But instead, her eclectic tastes and ability to learn different instruments led her to join an African marimba band within two months.

Although she had many successes in Seattle, after less than two years, Balter felt it was time to move on. She took a position working on an HBO project in Los Angeles, where her first piano student recommended her to Jane Fonda as a teacher for her kids. Then, she says, Fonda recommended her to a lot of other people, and soon Balter had students "coming from everywhere." " I even coached (football star) Marcus Allen to play piano," she says. The music on Balter's "Music From My Heart" includes pieces she's written for films. "Finding My Wings," for example, is an "improvisation" she composed as the third part of a recital Paige Hurd played in "Beauty Shop." Balter says her CD doesn't really fit into any single genre because it includes classical, jazz and New Age music. "I like being New Age," she says, "because it's open, it's eclectic, willing to marry this with that, and not stiff. That's me."

Mark Kanny can be reached at [email protected] or 412-320-7877.