Lissauer plays piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone. He began arranging music for
Al Jarreau while still at Yale. He taught at Yale for a year, and then became a session piano player. As a composer and music producer, he has worked with
Al Jarreau,
Bette Midler,
Whitney Houston, and
Luther Vandross. In Canada to produce a record for
Lewis Furey, Lissauer was approached by Cohen at a Furey concert. The two met again several weeks later in New York to produce the
New Skin for the Old Ceremony album.
John Miller, who played bass on the album, described Lissauer's approach to music as "very particular, European, simple but complex, highly imaginative".
New Skin for the Old Ceremony would make the Top Thirty in the United Kingdom. After the album was completed, Cohen appointed Lissauer as the musical director for his next two tours; Lissauer played piano, organ, saxophone, and percussion on the tours. In 1983, Lissauer again worked with Cohen to produce the album
Various Positions, including the arrangement of "Hallelujah", which would go on to become one of the most recorded songs of its time. Disappointed when
Columbia Records decided against a U.S. release of the album, Lissauer decided to focus his efforts on composing for films and TV. Although he had given up record producing, in 2006 Lissauer arranged several songs on
Blue Alert by
Anjani as a favor for Cohen. In 2022, Lissauer appeared in the documentary
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, and composed the score. == Personal life ==