Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tamir Hendelman began his keyboard studies at age 6. In 1984, he moved to the United States and won Yamaha's National Keyboard competition two years later at age 14. Concerts in Japan and the Kennedy Center followed.
Since returning to Los Angeles in 1996, he has been in steady demand as pianist and arranger, touring the US, Europe, and Asia. He has also received awards from ASCAP[2] and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. In 1999, Tamir was a guest soloist with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.
Hendelman is the pianist/arranger on Jackie Ryan's "You and the Night and the Music" and Janis Mann's "A Perfect Time". He is also featured on Natalie Cole's "Still Unforgettable" (WEA, 2008) and Barbra Streisand's Love Is the Answer (Columbia, 2009). In 2002 he also toured Europe with Tierney Sutton and the Bill Holman Big Band. Hendelman musically directed Julia Migenes's "Alter Ego" and played/arranged on Roberta Gambarini's "Easy To Love" (Now Forward, 2006). In 2009, he accompanied Streisand at her engagement to the Village Vanguard in New York.
He is also bandleader of another trio in Los Angeles. The drummer Dean Koba has been part of it for years; on bass it's Dan Lutz or Carlito del Puerto.
Hendelman joined the Jeff Hamilton Trio in 2000, contributing arrangements, recording and touring Japan, Europe and the US. In 2001 he became a member of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, with whom he premiered John Clayton's new orchestration of Oscar Peterson's Canadiana Suite at the Hollywood Bowl in 2001.
