“Prepare to be surprised” (Classical Archives) by pianist, arranger, and teacher Eleonor Bindman. Known worldwide for “Bach playing of the highest order” (Pianodao) after releasing recordings of her original transcriptions of J.S. Bach, Bindman combines her passions of teaching and performing to bring great new repertoire to piano lovers of all kinds through her transcriptions, scores, and recordings.
Bindman’s recording of her arrangement of the J.S. Bach Brandenburg Concertos for Piano Duet with pianist Jenny Lin was declared “breathtaking in its sheer precision and vitality” by Pianist Magazine and quickly became the best-selling album for the label, Grand Piano, in 2018. The scores of the Brandenburg Duets are available from Naxos Publishing and the printed versions are published by “Muzyka” Edition. The success and reach of the Brandenburg Duets led Bindman to create, Stepping Stones to Bach, a set of 48 easy/intermediate piano arrangements of J.S. Bach orchestral masterworks. Then came the unprecedented J.S. Bach: Cello Suites for Solo Piano, an accurate piano transcription of Bach’s iconic set which was recorded in 2020 and made its debut on the Billboard® Traditional Classical Charts at #7.
Ms. Bindman’s discography includes Tchaikovsky: The Seasons on MSR Classics and her debut recording “Three works by Modest Mussorgsky.” Both feature her own transcriptions. She also released Out of the Blue with pianist Susan Sobolewski under the name Duo Vivace, which presents two-piano and four-hand works by Gustav Holst, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin.
Ms. Bindman’s transcriptions can be found internationally in print and electronic form. The Bach arrangements are available from Muzyka/P.Jurgenson edition and Naxos Publishing. Her piano version of Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain and a set of original compositions for children, An American Calendar are published by Carl Fischer, Inc.
Spring 2022 will bring the solo release of J.S. Bach’s Complete Partitas for Keyboard on the Delos label. Ms. Bindman’s experience of working with the complex counterpoint of the Brandenburgs as well as with the expressive possibilities of a single melodic line of the Cello Suites is bound to result in some fresh interpretive insights. She is excited about presenting the diverse body of work which the great composer himself published as his “Opus 1”.
Another new project, to complement the Brandenburg Duets, is a piano duet arrangement of Bach’s complete Orchestral Suites. The transcription is completed and will be recorded in April 2022.
Eleonor Bindman is currently based in New York City, where she is an active recording artist, performer, and teacher.