Born in Edmonton in 1960, Lori Burns has degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto (A.R.C.T., Piano Performance), The University of Western Ontario (B.Mus., Theory and Composition), The University of Alberta (M.Mus., Music Theory and Literature) and Harvard University (Ph.D., Music Theory). She has received study and research grants from the University of Alberta, Harvard University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Ottawa, as well as the Alberta Heritage Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She has taught at both the Ohio State University in the United States and the University of Ottawa in Canada where she is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music.

Professor Burns teaches the full range of courses in music theory, including harmony and counterpoint, analysis, Schenkerian theory, and twentieth-century theory, as well as special topics courses on the subjects of gender studies in music and popular music.

Professor Burns is the author of Bach’s Modal Chorales (Pendragon Press, 1995), as well as articles on that subject in leading journals in the field of music theory. She has written several articles on popular music, published in: Understanding Rock, (Oxford, 1997); Expression in Pop-Rock Music, edited by Walter Everett (Garland, 2000); repercussions 7 (1999-2000); Music Theory Online, (June 2004), Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis, edited by Deborah Stein (Oxford, 2004); Studies in Music at the University of Western Ontario, edited by James Grier, forthcoming, and Body Talk/Parler du Corps, edited by Christabelle Sethna (University of Ottawa Press, forthcoming). Her most recent book is entitled Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity, and Popular Music (Routledge Press, 2002), co-authored with Mélisse Lafrance. Professor Burns’s current research project, funded by SSHRC, is entitled "’Covering’ and Interpreting the Blues: Musical Expressions of Gender, Identity and Sexuality."