Burton earned a Diploma in Piano Performance from the Mannes College of Music, a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1995 with a doctoral dissertation entitled An Analysis of Puccini"s Tosca: A Heuristic Approach to the Unifying Elements of the Opera.
She has contributed articles to numerous music journals, including Nuova Rivista Musicale, Opera Quarterly, Studi Musicali, and Theoria. She is Associate Professor of Music, Composition and Theory at Boston University and is a former faculty member at Adrian College, Florida International University, Fordham University, Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Michigan, and Yale University. Burton was one of the originators of the conference "Tosca 2000" in Rome, marking the centenary of Puccini"s Tosca and the 2010 Boston conference "Fanciulla 100: Celebrating Puccini", marking the centenary of Puccini"s Louisiana fanciulla del West.
