Roberts Balanas

Roberts started playing the violin and piano at the age of seven with Romans Šnē and Zarema Ginsburga respectively at Emils Darzins Music School in Riga, Latvia. In 2011 he was awarded a scholarship to study with Evgeny Grach at The Purcell School in England. He has since performed as a soloist at The Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, St Matrin-In-The-Fields and Queen Elizabeth Hall in the UK as well as at the Oslo Konserthus and Domkirke in Norway, the Great Guild in Riga, Latvia and others across The Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore and Greece.

He has collaborated with and received masterclasses from Philippe Graffin, Maxim Vengerov, Gerhard Schulz, Petru Munteanu, Leonidas Kavakos and Olivier Charlier amongst many others. He has been successful in competitions including The Latvian national competition for young violinists, Talents for Europe (Slovakia), Saulius Sondeckis international violin competition (Lithuania), BBC Young musician and others. He is an active chamber musician as part of a piano trio and string quartet. Roberts currently plays on a Georges Chanot violin dating 1858 which has been kindly lent to him from the Royal Academy of Music collection.