Burns has produced three CDs as a leader: "Siren Song" (2005), "Live at Anna’s Jazz Island" (2008), and "Lotus Blossom Days" (2022). She has been delighting audiences for years with her impeccable taste and glorious tone. Burns has performed in some of the top jazz clubs and festivals around the country, such as Ryles, 1369 Jazz Club, the Starlight Room, and the Hilton Boston Back Bay, as well as the Garden City in San José, the San José Museum of Art’s “Women in Jazz” series, the San José Jazz Summer Fest, the Great American Music Hall with the Oakland Jazz Choir, Kimball’s East, and the Fillmore Jazz Festival. She has opened for Billy Taylor and Max Roach in the “Bright Moments Concert Series" in Amherst, Mass., and she was featured on “Music America,” a syndicated WGBH public radio broadcast.

Burns grew up in Maine and has been singing just about her whole life. She decided at the age of six to be a singer and performed throughout her early years in school musicals and choirs. She began writing plays and musicals when she was 11 years old. By the time she was 15, she was singing in a pop band that performed at school functions and casuals all around the state. She also started classical voice lessons and won second place in a classical vocal competition. She became hooked on jazz when her father introduced her to Ella Fitzgerald’s music.

Burns studied music at the University of New Hampshire. While in school, she became the vocalist for a professional big band that toured throughout New England. After graduating, she moved to Boston and performed in clubs around the city.

She decided to continue her music education in California at San José State University's graduate program for improvised music. While living in San José, she frequented a popular jazz club, Garden City, where the renowned pianist Smith Dobson held court several times a week. Burns became a popular performer in her own right and decided to move north to the San Francisco Bay area, where she established herself on the local jazz scene. She eventually moved to New York City. 

She has performed regularly in New York City at top venues, including the Iridium, Birdland Jazz Club, the Washington Square Hotel, the "Jazz Vocal Series" at Zeb's, and Zinc Bar. From 2013-18, she performed regularly at the legendary Cornelia Street Café before its untimely closure and also had a residency at The Stayton Room in The Lexington Hotel. She has also performed at two iconic Manhattan jazz clubs, the 55 Bar and Mezzrow.

Burns has found success because she infuses each song with heartfelt expression, digging into the lyrics and melody to reveal their richness. It is a formula that has garnered her many fans and the respect of her peers, which is why Max Roach once described Burns’ singing as “a gold mine.”

Education

• M.A., San José State University
• B.A., University of New Hampshire