Anthony Burger

Gospel pianist Anthony Burger entered the world in Cleveland, Tennessee. As an infant taking his first steps, he overturned his walker and fell against the family’s aging furnace, sustaining third-degree burns across his face, legs, and both hands— injuries severe enough to threaten his survival. Months of grueling medical procedures followed, during which his parents maintained their religious convictions even as physicians expressed doubts that he would ever regain full use of his hands. By age three he had shown that faith and prayer could prevail over clinical prognosis, recovering hand function and learning to play the piano. Observers quickly recognized his striking musical gifts.

He trained at the Cadek Conservatory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, becoming the youngest student the school had admitted, and received instruction in classical technique while developing, before his tenth birthday, a lasting preference for traditional Southern gospel. As a teenager he joined the Kingsmen and appeared on nearly two dozen albums with the group. His first solo recording, Anthony Burger at the Lowry Organ, was issued in 1975; readers of Singing News Magazine responded by voting him one of the five leading Southern gospel musicians. He captured the award in 1980 and retained it for the following ten years. Additional solo projects appeared during the 1980s. Between 1993 and 2000 he contributed to roughly fifty videos with Bill Gaither’s Vocal Band. His honors include Musician of the Year from the Southern Gospel Music Association, multiple Gospel Voice Diamond Awards, and the Dove Award.

Southern gospel listeners encounter such standards as “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Just as I Am,” “This Is My Story,” and “Shall We Gather at the River” on his releases.