 His teachers in Romania were Dolly Koritzer, Garabet Avakian and Stephan Gheorghiu.His studies continued at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem with Iair Kless, London's Trinity College with Bela Katona, and from 1975-79 at the Juilliard School, New York with Dorothy DeLay, where he also took part in master classes with Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Felix Galimir and Robert Mann.In 1979 Bălănescu became leader of the Michael Nyman Band and toured with this group around the world for 15 years.