DAVID BUCHBINDER (trumpeter, composer) is a Toronto-based composer, producer and cultural inventor. David leads numerous music groups, composes for concert, theatre, film and television, presents large-scale performance projects, and has toured extensively in North America and Europe. He has been involved in the creation and presentation of world music and jazz since 1987.  

He leads a number of ensembles including the David Buchbinder Jazz Ensemble, Odessa / Havana, the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, and Shurum Shurum Jazz Circus.  He is also member of the Arabic fusion ensemble, Medina. Recently he has been co-presenting projects with his wife, dancer/musician/actor Roula Said.

He is the composer/creator/producer of Shurum Shurum Jazz Circus, a unique music-centered extravaganza for 11 musicians and 7 movement artists from the worlds of circus and modern dance, performing to sold-out houses and much excitement, at the Distillery Jazz Festival, the Festival d'Ete in Quebec City, and most recently in a self-produced, critically acclaimed run in Toronto.

David has composed the scores for feature films, shorts, theater and modern dance. His score for animated short “Stone of Folly” was awarded the Cannes Film Festival Prix du Jury. He has collaborated with playwright Jason Sherman, choreographer Allen Kaeja and Soulpepper Theatre Company, and was commissioned to compose music for jazz guitarist John Abercrombie and trumpeter John McNeil. He has been invited to perform his music at Dave Douglas' Festival of New Trumpet Music at Tonic, NYC. David has received numerous grants and resident fellowships for study, composition and performance. He was nominated for the 2002 Louis Applebaum Award for Excellence in Film and Television Composition, and is the recipient of the 2003 ASIFA Animation Society Award for Excellence in Soundtrack Composition.

David's recording, Shurum Shurum Jazz Circus was released in 2005. It was picked as one of the Top 20 releases of 2005 by Jazz Report's Bill King, prompted an excited commendation from renowned jazz composer John Zorn, and reached the top ten on the Canadian campus radio jazz charts.

In 2007, David released Odessa / Havana, a recording that mixed Eastern European klezmer and Latin American dance rhythms. The recording featured pianist Hilario Duran, saxophonist John Johnson, and vocalist Maryem Hassan Tollar. In 2013, his group "Odessa / Havana" released Walk to the Sea on Tzadik Records.

Awards:

1990 - Juno Nomination, Best Global Recording
1993 - Juno Nomination, Best Global Recording
2002 - Prix de Jury - Cannes Film Festival
2002 - Louis Applebaum Award for Excellence in Film and TV Composition, nominee
2003 - ASIFA Award for Excellence in Soundtrack Composition
2003 - Juno Nomination, Best Global Recording
National Jazz Awards, Album of the Year/SOCAN Composer of the Year nominations
2005 - Juno Nomination, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording
2008 - Canadian Folk Music Awards - World Group of the Year - Odessa/Havana
2014 - JUNO award for 'Wold Music album' for Walk to the Sea