New York native Rob Burger has built a distinguished career as an arranger, composer, and multi-instrumentalist over more than two decades of acclaimed collaborations. His work spans a remarkably diverse roster of artists, including John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithfull, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, k.d. lang, Neko Case, Kacey Musgraves, Calexico, and Iron & Wine.
Burger began studying piano at the age of four before attending the University of Massachusetts, where he studied with jazz luminaries Max Roach, Archie Shepp, and Yusef Lateef. At the same time, he immersed himself in New York City’s experimental music scene, frequenting venues such as The Knitting Factory and The Kitchen throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, where he encountered influential artists including Arthur Russell, David Byrne, and Laurie Anderson.
He later relocated to San Francisco, where he made a lasting impact with the chamber ensemble Tin Hat Trio while expanding his work as a session musician and film composer. After the group disbanded in the early 2000s, Burger returned to New York and began a close collaboration with composer John Zorn, contributing to numerous recordings.
Burger’s film credits include Ocean’s 8, Nebraska, The Holdovers, Everything Is Illuminated, Bully, and The Optimist. He has also composed for Apple, Google, BritBox, HBO, The Guggenheim, The Wall Street Journal, PBS, Toyota, and Mercedes-Benz. His work is permanently featured at the Museum of the City of New York.
He released his first two solo albums, Lost Photograph and City of Strangers, on John Zorn’s Tzadik label before relocating to Portland, Oregon, in 2011. There, he built a studio centered around an extensive collection of vintage keyboards and developed the material that became The Grid.
Released in 2019 on Western Vinyl and featuring Laurie Anderson, The Grid blends neo-classical textures, ’70s kosmische influences, and elements of 20th-century exotica into a distinctive sonic landscape shaped by Burger’s journey through multiple musical worlds.
His most recent solo album, Marching with Feathers (2022), moves beyond the controlled exotica of The Grid toward a more fluid, genre-defying sound that balances electrified textures with expansive, piano-driven introspection.
Burger now lives and works from his studio in Nashville, Tennessee.
“An astonishing musician with a profound compositional sense of how to do just the right thing at the right time.”– John Zorn