Canary Lee Burton

Who is Canary Lee Burton?

Canary Lee Burton is an American keyboardist, composer and writer. Burton was born in Richmond, California and later lived in El Paso, Texas. She studied music at the University of Idaho at Moscow, Idaho, from 1972-1979, and relocated to Washington D.C. and then to Cape Cod. Burton continued her studies with Kevin Toney in jazz in 1980, with David Sussman in 1988, with John Zielinski in composition from 1990 to 1992, and briefly with Rodney Lister at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1995. She worked as a music teacher from 1996-2000.

Burton founded and played in various rock and jazz ensembles while completing her education and worked at WPFW Pacifica radio in Washington D.C. for three years. After moving to Cape Cod, she established her own contemporary music radio show The Latest Score, on WOMR in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Selected pieces of her work were included in the published collection Music of Living Composers, compiled by the Campbell University piano professor and composer Betty Wishart in 1997. Her works have been performed internationally.