Richard Burns (3)

US engineer (mostly classical music), from Syracuse, NY. Richard C. Burns was born in 1920 and raised in New Haven,Connecticut. His interest in classical music developed in his teens when he would listen to live radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera and other performances. Burns graduated from Yale University in 1942 with a degree in physics. He worked for a yearafter graduation at the Bureau of Standards, Washington DC, and then worked as a recording engineer for Soundscriber Corporation in New Haven. He began volunteering as a project recording engineer for various New Haven musical performances and church services in 1949. In the 1950s Burns began doing recording projects for Yale composer and faculty member Paul Hindemith, who also founded and was music director of the Yale Collegium Musicum. Burns then founded Overtone Records, Inc., in 1953 and served as the company’s producer and recording engineer. In 1966 he was appointed audio engineer at Syracuse University by colleague Howard Boatwright, for whom he had made several recordings in New Haven. Burns remained in Syracuse University until 1984. He also collaborated with recording engineer Tom Packard to invent and manufacture the Packburn, an analogue machine that reduces surface noise on 78-rpm and LP Recordings. Burns died in 2002.