Donald Vernon Burrows AO MBE (8 August 1928 – 12 March 2020[1]) was an Australian jazz and swing musician who played clarinet, saxophone and flute.
The year 1973 was a watershed for Burrows as he received the first gold record for an Australian jazz musician for his record Just the Beginning,[7] instigated the first jazz studies program in the southern hemisphere, at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (under the direction of Rex Hobcroft) and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
Burrows performed to mostly classical music audiences through tours with Musica Viva and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation concert series.
He formed the Don Burrows Quartet with George Golla (guitar), Ed Gaston (double bass) and Alan Turnbull (drums).
He also worked with Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson, Tony Bennett, Stéphane Grappelli, Cleo Laine, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
In a 2008 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Andrew Ford, celebrating his 80th birthday, he said that "arthritis is not the greatest for playing a musical instrument.
The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia.