David Buchbinder is a multi-talented trumpeter, award-winning composer, producer and cultural inventor who brings a spirit of intensity and inquiry to everything he does. He leads numerous music groups, composes for concert, theatre, film and television, presents large-scale performance projects, and has toured extensively in North America & Europe.

He has been involved in the creation and presentation of world music and jazz since 1987 and has earned a reputation as one of its compositional and instrumental leading lights, through his eponymous Jazz ensemble (nominated for a Juno Award and two National Jazz Awards) The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, (three JUNO Award nominations in five recordings). He leads the world jazz ensemble ODESSA/HAVANA whose debut CD was released in November 2007 to great audience and critical acclaim on John Zorn's Tzadik label.

David is also the composer/creator/producer of the SHURUM BURUM Jazz Circus, a unique music-centered extravaganza featuring 11 musicians and 7 movement artists from the worlds of circus and modern dance, performing to sold-out houses at the Distillery Jazz Festival, the Festival d’Eté in Quebec City, and a critically acclaimed run in Toronto. The recording, SHURUM BURUM Jazz Circus received a stream of accolades since its release (November 2005), winning enthusiastic praise from critics, fans and leading musicians. It was nominated for both a JUNO and a National Jazz Award, 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 has spent nine weeks (so far) in the Top Ten on the Canadian campus radio jazz charts, peaking at #1 in both Earshot and Chart Attack.

David is a member of the Arabic fusion ensemble, MEDINA, and has recently founded a brass band playing music of the Roma (Gypsies). He has also been co-presenting projects with his wife, dancer/musician/actor Roula Said, including IMAGINE THE SOUND of PEACE and the music/dance series FEAST of the EAST.


David has composed the scores for seven feature films, the animated short Stone of Folly (awarded the Cannes Film Festival Prix du Jury), and for theatre and modern dance. Recent and current compositional projects include the score for the Canadian feature Whole New Thing, a collaboration with playwright Jason Sherman, choreographer Allen Kaeja & Soulpepper Theatre Company, and a commission to compose a CD’s worth of 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.

His performance and creative activities have been profiled extensively in all media including National Public Radio, CBC Radio and TV, CTV (Canada AM), Radio Canada, Bravo, BBC, Suddeutsche Rundfunk, The Manchester Guardian, Svenska Dagblatt, Tageszeitung, Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Times, the Forward, the Village Voice, a cover feature in Lifestyles magazine, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, NOW Magazine, Eye Magazine, and many others.