Canary Burton


Canary Lee Burton is an American keyboardist, composer and writer.

Biography

Burton was born on September 16, 1942, in Richmond, California. In 1972 she moved to Moscow, Idaho, to attend the University of Idaho where she was one of the first women to be accepted into the music composition program. After passing her third-year piano exam, she left to form her own rock ’n roll band and play in various rock and jazz ensembles. She attracted followers through her gigs, but she came to find performance unfulfilling and turned to composition.
She relocated to Washington D.C., where she worked at WPFW Pacifica radio for three years. She then moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she established her own contemporary music radio show, The Latest Score, on WOMR in Provincetown. While founding and playing in various rock and jazz ensembles, 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 to 2000.
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. In 2013, Southern River was among the winners of the annual Search for New Music competition of the International Alliance for Women in Music.
Burton's works have been performed internationally. Her music, with information about her work, is archived in the Wellfleet Public Library in Massachusetts and in Italy in the library of the Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica. She is the recipient of an ASCAP Plus Award, which supports ASCAP members whose works have a unique prestige value for which adequate compensation would not otherwise be received. Some of her music from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s may be heard online and the sheet music downloaded.

Selected works

Sometime After One, for pianoGaia Morning, Gaia Noon, Gaia Night, for pianoCosta Brava, for pianoAtlantic Sonata, for pianoThe Promise, for voice and pianoArcheological Record, for piano.Daniella’s Hope, for piano four-handsWhispers, for guitarString Theory, for string orchestraChopin Slept, for piano trioIn the Beginning, for organA Green and Yellow Basket, for organSolo Viola, for solo violaClara Young, for voice and pianoAmerican Lullaby, for voice and pianoEarly in the Morning, for voice and pianoThe Tea Party: The Tea Party; Dancing with my Teddy; Playing Dress Up; Ad HocFolksong for My Mother pianoVictoria's Harp, for pianoSouthern River, for cello and violaWe Want to Pond Naked, for voice, flute, oboe, pianoNo More Violins, for violin and pianoThe Twelfth of Cold, for piano, viola, violin, clarinet, bass, cello, in three movements: Fairy Boat; Snow Imp; Frost HeavesViola Thinks 2, viola soloSparcity, for viola, bass, flute, tubaSri Rama, for pianoNightfall in the City, for piano and voiceRefugee, for.guitar and voiceIndian Voices, electroacoustic
One-minute piecesLa Compara, for piano, trumpet and clarinetCuban Love, for pianoDust Bunnies, for pianoMinute Meld, electroacousticViola Thinks 1, for viola solo
JazzFamiliarity, lead sheet, jazz, one instrumentMeteor Shower, jazz/instrumentalCompanion, for jazz pianoCompanion, extended for bass, piano and fluteLulu's Rag, for jazz bandSinuosity, for flute, oboe, pianoSolar Reflection, for jazz bandYa Gotta Be Kiddin, for pianoSigred's Lullaby, for pianoRaggity Three Step, for pianoTurkey TooTritone SubrosaMonkish
Burton's music has been recorded and issued on CD, including:Piano Music from Cape Cod Canary Burton, pianoWomen in Harmony Classical Bird: The Music of Canary Burton Jazz Bird Canary Burton, piano; Jarvis TrioBird Notes.Bird Song: Canary Burton and FriendsLive at the Center Lou Lou and Bird: Soundpaintings 2012
  • ''Lou Lou and Bird: Soundpaintings 2014''