During his late teenage years, Balter studied privately with composer Almeida Prado and pianist Linda Bustani.

His main composition teachers were Augusta Read Thomas, Amy Williams, and Jay Alan Yim.

[1] His works have been programmed by prominent music organizations including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW Series,[2] Los Angeles Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, the Baryshnikov Arts Center,[3] and the Fromm Music Series at Harvard University.

Balter's eclectic and unique compositional voice draws from several sources ranging from Spectral Music to Postminimalism, with a special emphasis on unusual sound colors and complex rhythmic patterns.

To that extent, his particularly close relationship with artists like the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, flautist Claire Chase, and violist Nadia Sirota have decidedly shaped his musical language into what critics describe as "a fiercely imaginative palette of instrumental and vocal sounds rare in today's dour, post-classical new music" (The Chicago Tribune),[13] "surrealistic" (The New York Times),[14] and "a virtuosic equilibrium of colliding particles" (Boston Globe).