Bryan Burns

Bryan K. Burns, D.M.A., has performed, lectured, taught and adjudicated throughout the United States and abroad. The foundations of his guitar playing were developed under the tutelage of many fine guitarists, most notably the founder of the guitar department at the Meadows School, Robert Guthrie. As his love for the 19th-century guitar repertoire began to blossom, Dr. Burns sought out the Italian masters to further his interpretive understanding of their rich musical heritage. His studies with Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Micheli, both in festivals and privately, have had a tremendous impact on his musical and artistic development. His post-graduate work with Eliot Fisk at the New England Conservatory focused primarily on Baroque repertoire.

Dr. Burns holds three music degrees from the University of North Texas, as well as an Artistic Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory. He has won numerous prizes and awards in the field of music, both on the concert stage and academically, and has given concerts and lectures both in the U.S. and Europe, appearing as a featured soloist for several guitar societies and music festivals. As an expert in guitar pedagogy, Dr. Burns has published two treatises on the topic. Most recently, he has lectured extensively on his dissertation research pertaining to musical rhetoric and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to his teaching post here at SMU, Dr. Burns enjoys serving as the director of classical guitar studies at Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Dallas, Texas.