ABOUT DAVID
Play. Create. Inspire.
David Buchbinder is an award-winning performer, creator and producer in music and culture, working in the borderlands where people, cultures, genres and disciplines intersect.
He leads groundbreaking Global Music and Jazz ensembles, composes for his own projects and on commission, produces music-centered, multidisciplinary shows, conceives, develops and directs visionary organizations, and teaches music and the creative path.
His success as a creator is rooted in his capacity to imagine, facilitate and produce work that is fresh, specific and deeply authentic. David currently divides his time between Toronto and New Orleans
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Let’s interrupt this formal text to come clean: there are a lot of projects across disciplines and genres represented on this site. Maybe too many to make any sense. The thing that brings them all together is my curiosity, my desire to learn and to create with the materials and opportunity at hand, and to join with other inspriring creators to make stuff. I’m also always most excited about: “what comes next?”. So please take in everything the site has to offer or just focus on one project. Either way, I’m grateful you have chosen to visit!
-David
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David is a musician, composer, artistic director, producer and cultural generator who has a unique skillset, a depth of experience and a suite of proprietary tools that make him a creative problem solver par excellence.
David has led (among others) the JUNO Award winning music groups David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, founded the world-renowned Ashkenaz Festival, created a number of multidisciplinary shows including the world’s only Jazz Circus, developed performance projects for major cultural institutions such as the Royal Conservatory of Music/Koerner Hall and the Aga Khan Museum, created acclaimed scores for feature film, television, theatre and dance, and founded the creativity-based community development organization Diasporic Genius.
Along with the JUNOs David has received the recognition of many awards and nominations, including a Grammy Award, Toronto Arts Award, a Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, several Canadian Folk Music Awards, the K.M. Hunter Award, and the ASIFA Award for Composition in Animated Film.
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Recent and current projects include the new music production Music at the Center of the River, creating and producing the musical/theatrical show The Ward Cabaret, being the founding artistic director and producing the premier recording for KUNÉ: Canada’s Global Orchestra. Since 2019 David has divided his time between Toronto and New Orleans, where he has recently begun presenting his work.
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David is also a passionate educator, teaching privately, through workshops and through his Creative Pathfinders method, which he recently brought to the New School in New York City, and which is the basis for a new special project with Roots of Music in New Orleans.
“Buchbinder is…a jazz trumpeter producer activist whirlwind!”
“… Most intriguing was David Buchbinder’s music: fiendishly complex, fiercely challenging but impressively executed.”
REVIEWS
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“…a musical paradise that is dancing and completely irresistible. There is beautiful music here, along with ferocity and no small amount of fun. Failure to respond is virtually impossible.”
“…sultry and diaphanous, Buchbinder’s trumpet weaves gloriously sinuous lines.”