He attended Lewis' School in Pengam, and was inspired to become a composer when he watched his teacher, David Wynne, copying out parts, and decided that was the kind of work he would like to do[citation needed].
His extensive output of instrumental and vocal works included 17 string quartets, 14 concertos, 13 operas for children and numerous choral and brass band pieces.
In collaboration with Mark Morris he wrote six operas combining the resources of young performers and professional musicians, and he developed close ties with Canada.
He coached and took part in productions at The Banff Centre and other venues in Alberta, as well as assisting in the exchange of both child and adult musicians and singers between Canada and Wales.
[3] A significant portion of Burtch's output was choral, and his works in this genre included his popular arrangements of Welsh folk songs which the National Youth Choir of Wales recorded in 1999.
He was influenced early in his career by the music of Leoš Janáček, and a characteristic of his vocal writing was the frequent use of irregular metres, which add vitality and preserve the fluency of the native speech rhythms of the text[citation needed].
In 2014 The Mervyn Burtch Trust was set up to preserve his music, and is collaborating with the National Library of Wales to create a digital archive of all his manuscripts.