In 1930 he won the Berlin International Piano Competition and obtained the prestigious Mendelssohn Prize in chamber music the following year with Roman Totenberg.
With the rise of the Nazis, Balsam settled in New York City, where he became the accompanist of choice for international artists, including Henri Temianka, with whom he performed twice in 1945 at Carnegie Hall, Zino Francescatti, David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Oscar Shumsky, Isaac Stern, Zara Nelsova, Joseph Fuchs, Lillian Fuchs, Michael Rabin, Ida Haendel, Mstislav Rostropovich, Nathan Milstein, Roman Totenberg, among many others.
Raps and Balsam also recorded the Dvorak Slavonic dances for two pianos, which was listed as a New York Times ten best of the year.
Some of his notable students include Emanuel Ax, Astrith Baltsan, Edmund Battersby, Robert Freeman, Mina Miller,[2] Edmund Niemann, Murray Perahia, Gena Raps, Logan Skelton, Paul-André Bempéchat and Eleanor Wong.
His wife, Ruth Rosalie, served as President of the Artur Balsam Foundation for Chamber Music.