Mary Catherine Burns is a media composer based in New York City and Atlanta, GA. Burns has created original music for a range of projects including film, animation, advertising, and video games. With five years of experience scoring for film, her work has been heard across celebrated festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Her score for the 2023 short drama Scream was shortlisted for Best Original Score at the Independent Shorts Awards in Los Angeles.

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With her background in piano, Mary Catherine's compositions often blend jazz harmony and improvisation with Romantic Period orchestration and emphasis on emotion. As a composer for media, she doesn't restrict herself to just one style and focuses on what palette and direction of music will best motivate the story.

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Burns holds a Master of Music in Film Scoring from the Berklee College of Music and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sound Design with a specialization in Music Composition from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She was selected for the prestigious Society of Composers and Lyricists Mentor Program for their 2024-2025 season. In addition to composing, she currently assists with engraving and creates orchestral MIDI mockups for Carl Fischer Music Publishing in NYC.​​​​