Jonny Rodgers is a composer and multi-instrumentalist performing and recording as Cindertalk.
Best known for his “stunning” (New York Times) work with tuned glass, Jonny orients his work around unusual organic instrumentation, often manipulating it electronically, to create future-leaning music that feels anchored in the real world. Never content to stay in one musical lane, Jonny is equally at home writing indie-music, classical art-music, and scoring films. A musical explorer, he seeks out unconventional sounds that permeate his writing which is often described as surprising, wistful, lovely, melancholy, intricate, and emotionally immersive. As a recent attendee to one of his concerts blurted out, “What planet are you from?”
Raised in the households of an Oxford theologian and then second-wave feminist lesbians, Jonny spent his formative years touring with his brother Stephen Peter Rodgers in the band Mighty Purple. He subsequently worked as a guitarist and writer in multiple touring bands. Between tours he studied art-music privately with composers in the Yale community, notably Padma Newsome, Fenno Heath and Deborah Teason. Jonny maintained a 9 piece chamber ensemble in New Haven until he moved to NYC and then Oregon to write and perform full time as Cindertalk.
Jonny lives on an Oregon farm with his wife and daughters, where he grows food, raises chickens, hosts artists for residencies, runs the record label Off Atlas, and above all — writes music.
