Eduardus Halim is a man of unusual interest to lovers of the piano everywhere. Famed for the originality and maturity of his interpretations, he is a living example of cultural interaction at its best. A man of Chinese stock who was born in Indonesia and given a Muslim name, he learned Javanese dancing as well as the violin and the piano in his early years. He was polished as an artist in New York, where he became a U.S. citizen. He now performs widely a large repertoire drawn mostly from the great realm of European masterpieces.

Mr. Halim's first teacher was a Hungarian, Alfonse Becalel. Rapid development led to the boy’s playing Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto at the age of eleven and, at thirteen, a debut recital. Mr. Halim's next teacher was the Belgian-trained Stephen Michael Sulungan. Mr. Halim recounts, "Often, his lessons amounted to a kind of supervised practice... Later, Mr. Horowitz did something similar for me." By 1980, when he was nineteen, he came to the United States to enter the Juilliard School as a pupil of the noted Sascha Gorodnitzky. "Under his guidance I found a new sense of discipline and learned how to work on something for a long time, in great detail."

After four years and Gorodnitzky's passing, Mr. Halim turned to the distinguished Rudolf Firkušný, "He worked with me in interpreting such varied forms as those in Schumann's Davidsbündlertânze and the concerti of Brahms and Schumann," recalls Mr. Halim.

When Harold C. Schonberg, previously Chief Music Critics of The New York Times and author of The Great Pianists, heard Mr. Halim, he was struck by the pianist's bold interpretations of the Romantic repertoire. Mr. Schonberg wrote a letter about the young man's unusual potential to the legendary Vladimir Horowitz. Juilliard faculty member and author David Dubal took Mr. Halim to meet the great virtuoso. The result: forty lessons of crucial importance - at a key time in the pianist’s development. The chapter entitled "Last Pupil", in the Schonberg biography, Horowitz, His Life and Music, is devoted to this extraordinary relationship between mentor and pupil.

Since his 1987 debut, Mr. Halim has met success appearing with such orchestra as the Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. Recital engagements have carried Mr. Halim to audiences around the world. He has given recitals at Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York and at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Festival appearances have taken him to Ravinia, Grant Park, Newport, Stockholm, the Minnesota Orchestra's Viennese Sommerfest and Wyoming's Grand Teton Festival. In 1997 he made a triumphant recital debut at Wigmore Hall in London, earning an invitation from the BBC to return in 1998 for a broadcast from the hall. His awards and honors including the Young Concert Artists International Auditions as well as the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In December 1999, he was soloist for the Milwaukee Symphony his tour appearance in Havana, Cuba - the first performance there by a professional American orchestra in more than forty years.

Mr. Halim's recordings include "Presenting Eduardus Halim: A Program of Piano Transcriptions," on the Arabesque label and two discs on the Reservoir Studio Productions label, one featuring the works of Grandos and the other devoted to the works of Chopin. Of this recording, Stephen Wigler of Amazon.com wrote, "Anyone who misses Vladimir Horowitz would be wise to investigate this all-Chopin recital by Eduardus Halim, the last of the master's students. He is a born Chopinist... Rather than call him his master's disciple, it would be better to call him his successor." This disc also was named one of the top classical instrumental CDs by Amazon.com/newCDnews.com.

Eduardus Halim's distinctive approach to the piano is matched by a charismatic personality. He has captured the attention of the media and been profiled by The New York Times (Arts & Leisure), The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Piano Quarterly and Clavier.

Mr. Halim is currently a member of the Artist Faculty at New York University, in the Steinhardt School's Department of Music and Performing Arts.