Tamar Halperin received her musical education at the Tel-Aviv University and at The Juilliard School in New York. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on compositional procedures in Bach’s instrumental music. Between 2005-2009 she was also enrolled at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland for further specialisation in Baroque harpsichord and continuo playing.
With repertoire that ranges over five centuries, Tamar performs worldwide as a soloist and with various chamber groups, in such venues as New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and the Philharmonie, Konzerthaus, in Berlin.
She has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards: the Hessen culture prize in 2016; an Echo Jazz award (2010 & 2014 with Michael Wollny & “Wunderkammer” project); the Eisen-Picard scholarship award (2005-2009); the C.V. Starr fellowship (2003-2009); the Presser award (2005); an honorary prize at the Musica Antiqua Festival in Brugge (2004); and the Americal-Israel Culture Foundation scholarship (1998-2002).
While the focus of her activities is Baroque music, Tamar is also an enthusiastic performer of classical and contemporary music. She has been composing, arranging, and performing pop, jazz, electronic, and new classical music. Her multi-keyboard solo album Satie (Edel/Neue Meister, May 2016) —on which she plays piano, harpsichord, Wurlizer, Hammond, glockenspiel, and computer—received enthusiastic reviews.
In 2017 she released her album, BachSpace (Edel/Neuemeister) in collaboration with violinist Etienne Abelin and sound designer Tomek Kolczinsky. The album weaves Bach movements for violin & keyboard together with re-imagined electronic sounds and newly composed movements that are inspired by Bach.
Since 2007, she has been collaborating with her husband, countertenor Andreas Scholl, as a pianist & harpsichordist.