Formerly professor of piano, Russian Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow (1999 - 2022); guest professor, KBS Conservatory in Seoul, Korea (2004/2005). Taught master classes throughout Russia and in the USA (Florida International University); C. Ph. E. Bach Gymnasium, Berlin, Germany; Kangnam University, Korea; Malaga Conservatory, Spain; Parma Conservatorio Arrigo Boito, Italy; and Tel-Hai International Piano Master Classes, Israel. 
Participated in Kuhmo (Finland) and Davos (Switzerland) festivals. His debut recital took place in the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (1993). Official US debut at the Third Annual Miami International Piano Festival of Discovery (2000). Recitals in Steinway Halls in Berlin, New York and London as well as in Italy (Verdi hall in Milano conservatory) and Japan followed.
As soloist with orchestras appeared, besides Russia, in Germany, US, Italy, and Switzerland. Collaborated with such conductors as Jean-François Monnard, Karel Boeschoten, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Carlo Palleschi, Allan Birney, as well as with pianists Konstantin Lifshitz, Mikhail Mordvinov, violist Alexandra Frantseva, and soprano Sofia Fomina.  
Born into a family of musicians, Denis Burstein studied first with his father and then, at Moscow Gnessin Institute, with Professor Vladimir Tropp, graduating with the DMA degree. In 2005/6 worked with Prof. Bernd Goetzke at the University of Music and Drama in Hanover, Germany.
All major styles and schools of music of the XVI–XX centuries are represented in Burstein’s repertoire, including early music (Cabezon, Sweelinck, Byrd and Purcell). He gives a prominent place to the pieces by Russian composers and XX-century Western classics and finds it important to promote the not frequently heard works of Taneyev, Medtner, Miaskovsky, Weinberg, Lokshin, Janáček, Bartók, Hindemith and others.