Robert Burger

Robert Burger (born March 26, 1971) is an American composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and music director. Burger began playing piano at an early age, starting his formal training at age six with the pianist Jeffrey Marcus. He played in local and school bands during his youth, and then went on to study classical performance at the University of Massachusetts with pianist Nigel Cox, as well as African American Studies and improvisation under the direction of Yusef Lateef. In 1994, he was recruited as accordionist, to the Bill Frisell Band, featuring Joey Baron, Kermit Driscoll, and Don Byron. Burger moved to San Francisco in 1995 and formed the Tin Hat Trio. With them, he co-wrote and co-produced four critically acclaimed recordings for various major labels. The group's recordings Helium and The Rodeo Eroded each feature guest vocal performances by Tom Waits and Willie Nelson. In 2001, Burger moved back to New York where he worked closely with composer John Zorn, contributing as a featured soloist to many of his scores and recordings. He has released two full-length solo recordings on the Tzadik label, Lost Photograph (2002) and City of Strangers (2009). His third album entitled The Grid (2019) was released on Western Vinyl.