Eleonor Bindman

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Eleonor Bindman

Biography

Praised for “lively, clear textured and urbane” performances and “impressive clarity of purpose and a full grasp of the music’s spirit” (The New York Times), New York-based pianist, chamber musician, arranger, and teacher, Eleonor Bindman has appeared at Carnegie Hall, The 92 Street Y, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and on solo concerto engagements with the National Music Week Orchestra, the Staten Island Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the New York Youth Symphony, and The Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, Russia. Ms. Bindman is a prizewinner of the New Orleans, F. Busoni and Jose Iturbi international piano competitions and a recipient of a National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts award.

Born in Riga, Latvia, Ms. Bindman began studying the piano at the E. Darzins Special Music School at the age of five. Her first piano teacher, Rita Kroner, hailed from the studio of Heinrich Neuhaus, the venerable Russian piano pedagogue. After her family immigrated to the United States, she attended the High School of Performing Arts while studying piano as a full scholarship student at the Elaine Kaufmann Cultural Center. She received a B.A. in music from NYU and completed her M.A. in piano pedagogy at SUNY, New Paltz under the guidance of Vladimir Feltsman. The Poughkeepsie Journal describers Ms. Bindman as a strong pianist who attacks her work with great vitality and emotion…and mesmerizes her audiences with her flair and technique” (Barbara Hauptman).

Ms. Bindman’s discography includes two solo recordings, Tchaikovsky: The Seasons on MSR Classics, and her debut recording “Three works by Modest Mussorgsky,” which includes her own transcription of A Night on Bald Mountain. She also released Out of the Blue with pianist Susan Sobolewski under the name Duo Vivace, which features two-piano and four-hand arrangements of works by Gustav Holst, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin. Ms. Bindman is the author of several piano compositions and transcriptions, including Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain a set of original piano works for children, An American Calendar, both published by Carl Fischer, Inc., and Stepping Stones to Bach, a multi-volume set of easy/intermediate piano arrangements of J.S. Bach masterworks, available from Naxos Publishing and Eleonor Bindman’s website.

Ms. Bindman has always been devoted to the music of J.S. Bach, and after curating and performing in “The Bach Project” series for the Old Stone House in Brooklyn in 2014, she was inspired to compose a new arrangement of the six Brandenburg Concertos for Piano-four-hands. Ms. Bindman’s Brandenburg Duets were completed and recorded in 2017 and released by Naxos Records on their Grand Piano label in March 2018, becoming that year’s best-selling album. The score is available from Naxos Publishing and the printed versions are about to published by the Russian “Muzyka” Edition in the fall of 2020. Ms. Bindman’s latest recording of her new transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites for Solo Piano is scheduled for release by Grand Piano records on October 9th.

Quite simply (and irrespective of the particular novelty factor here) this is Bach playing of the highest order. … Listening to Bindman’s recording, I was immediately struck by the mellifluous beauty and sensitivity of her renditions of these iconic cello works; that she has transcribed them so well and plays them with such assurance, grace and finesse makes this 2CD set an easy choice for my Recording of the Month.

Andrew Eales
Pianodao

“Prepare to be surprised when you listen to the new 2-CD release of Eleonor Bindman playing her piano arrangements of Bach’s Cello Suites. Ms. Bindman’s arrangements faithfully include the notes you will find in the original Bach, but have become works that are new, unique, and completely satisfying on their own terms.”

Barry Lenson
Classical Archive

“Her skillfully wrought arrangements… [treat] the solo cello lines straight, and… you get Bach’s text served up with sensitivity and taste… Bindman’s well-considered tempos address the music’s dance origins. …her Preludes and Sarabandes sing out well”

Jed Distler
ClassicsToday

The Six Solo Cello Suites are some of the most celebrated and much-loved works in the classical repertoire, and they continue to fascinate and inspire performers and audiences alike. In this brand new transcription for solo piano, Eleonor Bindman pays tribute to this music’s enduring allure. … The transcription offers scope for some adventurous interpretation, particularly in the wonderfully playful pairs of Minuets, Bourrées and Gavottes. … Like the works included in her ‘Stepping Stones to Bach’, Eleonor has provided pianists with yet more repertoire to explore, and her elegantly, meticulous transcriptions shine a new light on this wonderful music while also remaining true to the original.

Frances Wilson
The Cross-Eyed Pianist

Given her experience in both playing and transcribing Bach, these [Stepping Stones to Bach] arrangements are excellent, retaining a clear sense of the original while offering early to intermediate pianists the opportunity to play interesting and imaginative stand-alone pieces.”

Frances Wilson
A Piano Teacher Writes
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