evan shinners

Born in Denver, Colorado, in 1986, Evan Shinners is an American pianist, harpsichordist, and scholar whose distinctive readings have brought renewed attention to J.S. Bach. He also works under the name WTF Bach, through which he created The Bach Store and continues to produce the WTF Bach Podcast.

Shinners began music lessons at nine, studying voice, piano, and conducting within European sacred traditions. He later worked with Jerome Lowenthal at New York’s Juilliard School, earning a BA in 2008 and an MM in 2010. After completing his studies he concentrated on Bach’s music and took up the harpsichord in 2011. His 2012 “Bach-upy America” tour presented an all-Bach program in non-traditional spaces across 48 states. Yamaha designated him an artist in 2015. Three years later New Cull Records issued J.S. Bach: Organ Sonatas, recorded on a Yamaha Disklavier. That same year he became a harpsichord student of Béatrice Martin and launched a nonprofit aimed at introducing Bach’s music to broader audiences. He opened the first Bach Store in Manhattan, performing Bach five hours daily for the initial 37 days while seventy guest musicians also appeared; the venture received notice in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Additional Bach Stores followed in New York City, Switzerland, and Thuringia, Germany, the composer’s home state.

Since 2020 Shinners has hosted the WTF Bach Podcast, examining the beauty, structure, and mechanics of Bach’s music through performances and conversations with guests including Christoph Wolff, Brad Mehldau, Robert Hill, and other leading Bach scholars and interpreters. In 2022 he began recording the composer’s complete solo keyboard works. The first three installments appeared in 2024 on New Cull Records: J.S. Bach: Complete Keyboard Works, Vol. 1 - Five Early Suites; J.S. Bach: Complete Keyboard Works, Vol. 2 - Original Compositions for Lute; and J.S. Bach: Complete Keyboard Works, Vol. 3 - Misc. Preludes and Fugues, Part One.