After winning the Scandinavian Young Artist Competition, Talvi furthered his studies in Paris, Vienna and the United States.
His teachers included Gabriel Bouillon, Ricardo Odnoposoff, Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute and the eminent violinist Jascha Heifetz at University of Southern California.
For several years Talvi worked for the famous Bach expert Helmuth Rilling both in Eugene, Oregon, and in Stuttgart, Germany.
During his tenure as concertmaster for Seattle Symphony, Talvi premiered and recorded concertos by David Diamond and Stephen Albert, as well as Paul Creston's "Partita" and Richard Strauss*' "Ein Heldenleben", and other orchestral works.
[2] Despite setbacks including court ordered arbitration and personal attacks on key figures posted on Talvi's blog, which were retracted under threat of libel,[3] the case was resolved through mediation.