Gerard McBurney is a composer, writer and broadcaster. His compositions include orchestral works, songs and chamber music, as well as theatre scores.

He is also known for his reconstructions of lost and forgotten works by Shostakovich. As a scholar he has has published in the field of Russian and Soviet music. His journalistic work includes articles on many different musical subjects. For nearly 20 years he wrote and presented programs on BBC Radio 3 (the classical music station of the British Broadcasting Corporation) as well as occasional programs for other radio stations in the UK, Europe and the former Soviet Union. He has researched, written, and presented around 30 documentary television films for British and German television channels. From 1985 he lectured and taught, first at the London College of Music and then for more than 10 years at the Royal Academy of Music. Mr. McBurney joined the staff of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as artistic programming advisor in September 2006.