Costas Baltazanis has over thirty-five years of teaching experience in both private and group settings. His students include many of today’s professional players and teachers throughout Europe and the USA.
In 1991, Costas began teaching Guitar and Harmony courses at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece. He later taught Ear Training, Jazz Composition, Ensemble, and Improvisation courses, and in 1995 he became Head Director of the Modern and Jazz Music Department at Nakas. In this role, he organized a great number of festivals, contests, workshops, seminars, lectures, guest musicians’ concerts, and teachers’ and students’ concerts. At Nakas, he also supervised the Berklee College of Music Study Abroad Program, the student exchange program between the two institutions, and the four-semester academic program that allowed students to complete their first two years of Berklee College credits in Athens. Additionally, he delivered lectures and seminars at conservatories in all major cities of Greece.
In 1996 and 1997, Baltazanis was invited by Berklee College of Music to teach and perform concerts at the Guitar Department of their Boston base. In 1998, he took part—along with Berklee professors—in the Blagoevgrad Jazz Festival (Bulgaria), conducting performances and overseeing seminars and scholarships. In 1999, the same team of professors performed and delivered seminars in Cyprus. Later that year, Costas traveled to Helsinki as a member of the Berklee College Scholarship Committee and delivered lectures at the Helsinki Pop and Jazz Conservatory. In 2000, a similar program took place in Barcelona, Spain, where Baltazanis taught at L’Aula del Liceu. In 2002, Costas served as a guest teacher at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Costas has lectured on a broad range of topics, including: Jazz Improvisation, Superimposed Harmony, Triadic Improvisation, Modal Improvisation, Teaching Jazz, Psychology in Music Performance and Practice, and Odd Meters in Greek and Balkan Folk Music and Their Application in Fusion and Jazz.
Costas Baltazanis has written three books—Music Theory and Ear Training, Jazz Harmony, and Electric Guitar—published by Philippos Nakas Editions. These books are taught in universities and music schools throughout Greece.
From 2009 to 2012, Costas Baltazanis served as Director of Studies at Momi Music School in Athens, Greece.
Costas Baltazanis taught and developed video courses at The Collective School of Music in Manhattan, New York, from 2014 to 2025.
He also served as Academic Director for the Summer Camp at the Gaudium Artopia School of Performing and Visual Arts in Hyderabad, India, in the summer of 2020.
Additionally, Costas served as an Adjunct Professor at New York University, teaching the course History, Evolution, and Politics of Hip-Hop Music in Greece, in September 2023.