George
Burton
Sonic & installation artist
New album · early 2027
Live footage
Live footage of each configuration — the working band, the sextet, the seasonal septet.
Full video archive · 12 more
- With Siya Makuzeni, Brooklyn — first set
- With Siya Makuzeni, Brooklyn — second set
- With Siya Makuzeni, Brooklyn — closing set
- Dark Science, second set — Bar Bayeux, 1 Apr 2026
- Dark Science, Bar Bayeux — first clip
- Dark Science, Bar Bayeux — second clip
- Quartet — Cliff Bells, Detroit: piano improvisation
- Quartet — Cliff Bells, Detroit
- The Yule Log: “We Three Kings” — Dizzy’s Club, NYC
- Ezra Masch: VOLUMES at the Bemis Center (exhibition film)
- Grandpa’s Face — a choral work by George Burton
Complete channel: youtube.com/@daporge. Timestamped work samples for grant panels available on request.
Four albums as a leader
Every album a different room in the same house. What each one earned, and what was written about it, sits with the record itself.
WHITE NOISE
The Yule Log
Reciprocity
The Truth of What I Am > The Narcissist
WHITE NOISE
Fourteen tracks. Opens with Sun Ra’s recitation — “This is your great decision.” Featuring Siya Makuzeni, Marquis Hill, The Black Opera, Alexa Barchini, Dante Clark, Chris Lewis and Dylan Band.
“This critic has rarely, in 11 years and hundreds of concerts, seen a musician who fed off the energy of the room as voraciously as Burton.”
Five configurations
From a single artist with a modular rig to a six-piece electric ensemble and a seasonal septet. Each configuration is routed for a different room and audience; each is a complete evening in its own right.
Solo Electricpiano, Rhodes, synthesizers & modular
An evening built in real time: acoustic piano against a modular synthesizer, Rhodes and spoken word, drawing on WHITE NOISE and the Volumes installation work. Suits galleries, museums, sonic-arts programs, planetariums and late-night festival slots as readily as a concert hall.
The most routable configuration: one artist, one flight, and a set that can be shaped to the architecture of the space.
- Personnel
- 1
- Instrumentation
- Acoustic grand · Rhodes · synths · modular · voice
- Set length
- 45–75 min · installation formats by arrangement
- Best for
- GalleriesMuseumsSonic artsLate-nightResidencies
George Burton Quartetwith Dylan Band, Tyrone Allen & Nazir Ebo
The working band. Piano and Rhodes with Dylan Band (saxophone), Tyrone Allen (bass) and Nazir Ebo (drums), moving between the swing tradition and the electric, songwriterly material of the recent albums.
Built for clubs, festival stages and week-long runs. Routes easily in North America and Europe.
- Personnel
- 4
- Instrumentation
- Tenor saxophone · piano/Rhodes · acoustic & electric bass · drums
- Set length
- 2 × 60 min or 1 × 75–90 min
- Best for
- ClubsFestivalsToursConcert halls
George Burton & Siya Makuzenitrio + Siya · voice, piano, bass & drums
A co-billed collaboration with the South African vocalist Siya Makuzeni, featured throughout WHITE NOISE. The band reshapes around her voice — piano and Rhodes, bass and drums — for songs, Xhosa-language material and long electric forms from the album.
Performing in South Africa 28 Oct – 11 Nov 2026. Siya is based in South Africa, so US and European dates are routed around her travel and are best planned well ahead. Where the dates don’t align, the quartet performs the same album material without her.
- Personnel
- 4
- Instrumentation
- Voice · piano/Rhodes · bass · drums
- Set length
- 1 × 75–90 min
- Best for
- FestivalsConcert hallsSpecial engagements
The Yule Logseptet · voice, strings & rhythm section
The holiday concert rebuilt as chamber music. Piano and harmonium with voice, violin, viola, cello, bass and drums — carols and originals reharmonized, closer to a winter song cycle than a pops medley. The record was featured on NPR’s Jazz Night in America; the live version premiered at Dizzy’s Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Also available with two vocalists, and in an orchestral arrangement for pops and symphony series. Books November and December; inquire by spring for the following season.
- Personnel
- 7 · or 5 + orchestra
- Instrumentation
- Piano/harmonium · voice · violin · viola · cello · bass · drums
- Set length
- 1 × 75–90 min or 2 × 45 min
- Best for
- Holiday seriesConcert hallsPops & symphonyPresenting houses
Dark Sciencethe electric sextet
The largest configuration: Rhodes, synthesizers and modular with flute and reeds, trumpet, voice, bass and drums. The repertoire is written for the ensemble.
Suited to festival and major-hall programming. Available for co-presentation from spring 2027; personnel are confirmed per engagement. A year’s notice is usual.
- Personnel
- 6
- Instrumentation
- Keys/synths/modular · flute & reeds · trumpet · voice · bass · drums
- Set length
- 1 × 60–90 min
- Best for
- Festival headlineMajor hallsCommissioned premieres
Book George Burton
Stage plots, riders and photographs are provided with every offer
Email: info@georgeburtonmusic.com
“Pianist George Burton is … a different beast in concert than he is on record.”Mike West, The Washington Post
Tell us who you are, the dates and city, and the configuration you have in mind. The booking office will follow up.
Send an inquiry →Inquiries go to the booking office and are never added to a mailing list.
Confirmed dates and open windows
For presenters routing a run: the dates already fixed, and where solo and quartet dates can attach to them. Autumn 2026 runs South Africa into Europe more or less continuously — the openings are at either end.
South Africa · with Siya Makuzeni
Dates in Johannesburg with Siya Makuzeni. Routing available across South Africa and the region, and on the outbound leg before 28 Oct.
Europe with David Murray
European tour, travelling direct from South Africa. Already in Europe and routed — added dates are possible either side of the tour.
Freiburg · Theater Freiburg
Amusez-vous: An Evening with Jacques Offenbach includes his arrangement of “Amours divins” from La Belle Hélène. Solo or quartet dates possible in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy from 3 Dec, and on 25 Nov between the tour and the production.
The Yule Log
Holiday dates for the septet, or the orchestral version with a resident pops orchestra. Booked by spring for the following season.
Album tour
Fifth album, early 2027. North American and European runs of 3–6 contiguous dates being routed now; block-booking with neighboring presenters welcome.
| 28 Oct – 11 Nov 2026 | George Burton & Siya MakuzeniQuartet · South Africa dates | Johannesburg, South Africa | Routing |
| 11 – 24 Nov 2026 | With David MurrayEuropean tour · piano | Europe | Routing |
| 26 Nov – 2 Dec 2026 | Amusez-vous: An Evening with Jacques OffenbachTheater Freiburg · arrangement of “Amours divins” | Freiburg, Germany | Theater |
Public listings: Bandsintown
Commissions, installations and teaching
Volumes2026 · installation performance
Featured performer in Ezra Masch’s light-and-sound installation, commissioned by the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, and curated by Rachel Adams. A Yamaha Disklavier fitted with optical sensors turns every keystroke into light; each musician’s performance is recorded and looped in the gallery for the run of the show.
Exhibition Jan 16 – 3 May 2026 · Performance 20 Feb 2026 · Also: solo set, Live @ LOW END, same evening
Grandpa’s Face2024 · choir & clarinet
For mixed choir and clarinet, after the Eloise Greenfield story. Written during a 2023–24 composer residency with the Brooklyn choir Choral Chameleon, carrying the inquiry into vocal and community form — the church-congregation model of collective participation, scored.
Premiere: Storytime, The SPACE at Irondale, Brooklyn · 28 Apr 2024 · Score and parts available
Día de los Muertos2023 · choir
For choir, the first work of the Choral Chameleon residency — a Day of the Dead setting for a community concert.
Premiere: Choral Chameleon, All Saints Episcopal Church, Brooklyn · 19 Nov 2023
WHITE NOISE, live2024–25 · electric quartet / quintet + poets
The album as a stage work: band, spoken word and electronics. Release show at Nine Orchard with poets Nadia Owusu and Dante Clark, curated by Stretch Armstrong; then The Jazz Gallery and Winter Jazzfest.
Nine Orchard, NYC · 7 Oct 2024 · Winter Jazzfest, The Bitter End · 9 Jan 2025 · The Jazz Gallery · 6 Feb 2025
Teaching & orchestral2002 – 2025
Faculty, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Jazz & Sonic Arts program, summer 2025 (mainstage concert 9 Aug 2025). Soloist, Timeless: A Tribute to Peter Nero, the Philly Pops, Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, 20 Apr 2024; earlier a featured soloist with the orchestra; featured musician in Leslie Burrs' opera Vanqui; Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts faculty. Masterclasses, residencies and programming work by arrangement.
A trilogy in progress
WHITE NOISE and the 2027 album are the first two movements of a long-arc body of work. The third — a large-scale piece for ensemble, voices and electronics — is open to a commissioning partner or co-commission.
Discuss a commission →Sound for spaces, not just stages
Site-responsive work for museums, galleries and festivals with a visual-arts strand: live modular and piano against light, in the lineage of Volumes. Solo Electric is the touring form.
Solo Electric →What we can supply
Work samples with timestamps, scores, full-length recordings, artist statement and CV in funder-specific formats, and prior commissioning agreements on request.
Press kit & materials →Masterclass60–90 min
Piano, composition or improvisation, conservatory to community level. Pairs with any configuration.
Clinic + concerthalf day
An afternoon workshop with the touring band on ensemble playing and repertoire, then the evening show.
Composition & electronics residency3–5 days
Writing for ensemble with modular and live electronics; culminates in a reading or performance of student work.
Schools & community45–60 min
K–12 and community sessions drawing on twenty years of classroom teaching. Fees quoted with the concert.
George Burton is a Brooklyn-based pianist, composer and bandleader, and an NAACP Image Award nominee. His work spans the jazz quartet, solo piano with electronics, chamber and choral writing, orchestral appearances and immersive installation — one practice built on the idea that improvisation is a way of composing.
Raised in a gospel household in Philadelphia and trained on violin, viola and piano from childhood, Burton writes like a string player at the keyboard, hearing a chord as a set of moving lines. That approach connects his acoustic work to his use of modular synthesis, and brings gospel, Xhosa rhythm and the Romantic piano tradition into conversation with jazz. He came to jazz at sixteen under Sid Simmons, Tim Warfield and Terell Stafford, and won the Peter Nero Piano Competition before moving to New York.
He has released four albums as a leader. The Truth of What I Am > The Narcissist (2016) was named a Top Debut in the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll; Reciprocity (2020) was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and an NAACP Image Award nominee; The Yule Log (2023) was featured on NPR’s Jazz Night in America; and WHITE NOISE (2024), with Siya Makuzeni and Marquis Hill, received four stars from DownBeat.
For seven years Burton was pianist with the Sun Ra Arkestra under Marshall Allen. He has played in the bands of Shabaka Hutchings and Marquis Hill, and his collaborators include David Murray, Dezron Douglas, James Carter, Meshell Ndegeocello and Odean Pope’s Saxophone Choir. He has performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, the Blue Note and Winter Jazzfest, and in Europe at Jazz Jantar and the Koa Jazz Festival.
His work has been presented by the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, where he performed within Ezra Masch’s installation Volumes, and by the Brooklyn choir Choral Chameleon through a composer residency. He has appeared as soloist with the Philly Pops and as a featured musician in Leslie Burrs’ opera Vanqui. He has served on the faculty of the Jazz & Sonic Arts program at the Banff Centre, and brings more than twenty years of teaching to residencies and workshops.
Burton is a Yamaha Piano Artist, a Mogami artist and a voting member of the Recording Academy.
Press kit
Everything a promoter or a writer needs, without emailing first: one-sheet, stage plots, riders, photographs, bios and the EPK.
One-sheet
Single page for programmers and agents: who, what, quotes, configurations, contact.
Stage plots & input lists
Solo Electric · Quartet · Quartet with Siya Makuzeni · The Yule Log · Dark Science sextet.
Technical & hospitality riders
Backline, piano, monitoring and hospitality by configuration.
Bio & press quotes
Full biography in About; every quote sits with the record it was written about. Short 50- and 150-word versions are below, ready to copy.
Music & video
All five records, the full video archive, and the commissioned work with links to each source.
Hi-res photography
Approved studio portraits, sized to run. Photographs by Ernest Stuart; credit line is in the folder.
Short bios · copy and paste
George Burton is a Brooklyn-based pianist, composer and bandleader, and an NAACP Image Award nominee. His four albums include Reciprocity, a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and WHITE NOISE, four stars in DownBeat. A former pianist with the Sun Ra Arkestra, he has performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Kennedy Center.
George Burton is a Brooklyn-based pianist, composer and bandleader, and an NAACP Image Award nominee. Raised in a Philadelphia gospel household and trained on violin, viola and piano, he writes like a string player at the keyboard and treats improvisation as a way of composing. His work spans jazz, electronics, choral writing and installation. His four albums as a leader include Reciprocity, a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and WHITE NOISE, four stars in DownBeat. For seven years he was pianist with the Sun Ra Arkestra under Marshall Allen, and has played in the bands of Shabaka Hutchings and Marquis Hill and with Dezron Douglas. He has performed at Newport, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. His work has been presented by the Bemis Center and the Philly Pops, and he has served on the faculty of the Banff Centre. He is a Yamaha Piano Artist.
A longer version is in the EPK and the bios PDF. For anything tailored, ask.
Booking, press and management
Occasional letters.
New music, dates and the odd essay. Never more than once a month.
Your address is never shared.