Dashon Burton
About
Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” by the Boston Globe, three-time Grammy-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career, appearing regularly throughout the U.S. and Europe. Highlights of his 2023-24 season included multiple appearances with Michael Tilson Thomas, including a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and Copland’s Old American Songs with the New World Symphony. Burton also performed Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, sings Handel’s Messiah with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed the title role in Sweeney Todd at Vanderbilt University. With the Cleveland Orchestra, Burton participated in a semi-staged version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and he joined the Milwaukee Symphony and Ken-David Masur for three subscription weeks as their artist-in-residence.
In the 2022-23 season, Burton returned to the Cleveland Orchestra for Schubert’s Mass No. 6 with Franz Welser-Möst both in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall; to the Houston Symphony for Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with Juraj Valčuha; and to the New York Philharmonic for Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke, led by the composer. Debut appearances included Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Milwaukee Symphony led by Ken-David Masur, the world premiere of Chris Cerrone’s The Year of Silence with the Louisville Orchestra led by Teddy Abrams, and Dvořák’s Requiem with the Richmond Symphony. In summer 2023, Burton appeared at Tanglewood and Caramoor in critically acclaimed performances of Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Philharmonia Baroque. He continues his relationship with San Francisco Performances as an artist-in-residence with appearances at venues and educational institutions throughout the Bay Area.
A multiple award-winning singer, Burton won his second Grammy Award in March 2021 for best classical solo vocal album with his performance in Dame Ethel Smyth’s masterwork The Prison with the Experiential Orchestra on the Chandos label. As an original member of the groundbreaking vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, he won his first Grammy Award in 2013 for their inaugural recording of all-new commissions, and his third Grammy Award in 2024 for their most recent recording “Rough Magic” which featured more new commissions from Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, Peter Shin, and Eve Beglarian.
His other recordings include “Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome” on Acis; the Grammy-nominated recording of Paul Moravec’s “Sanctuary Road“ on Naxos; “Holocaust, 1944” by Lori Laitman on Acis; and Caroline Shaw’s “The Listeners” with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. His album of spirituals garnered high praise and was singled out by the New York Times as “profoundly moving… a beautiful and lovable disc.”
Burton received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He is an assistant professor of voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.