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The American bass-baritone, Dashon Burton, began his professional studies at Case Western Reserve University and graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Upon graduation, he was invited to join Cantus, a professional men's classical vocal ensemble based in Minneapolis, and toured with them for four years. In 2009, he entered Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied vocal literature including Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244), and Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah under tenor James Taylor. He received his Master of Music degree in 2011. In 2012. he brought home prizes from the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the 49th International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. These awards followed his First Place wins in both the 2012 Oratorio Society of New York's Competition and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's Competition for Young American Singers.
In key elements of his repertoire-- J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) and St. Matthew Passions (BWV 244) and the B minor Mass (BWV 232), F. Mendelssohn’s Elijah, L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, J. Brahms' Requiem, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah and W.A. Mozart's Requiem - Dashon Burton is a frequent guest with ensembles such as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque (Director: Martin Pearlman); the Carmel Bach Festival and Bethlehem Bach Festival, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Forays into more varied repertoire in the last seasons have included his performances of Michael Tippet’s A Child of our Time at Harvard, Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach and Hanns Eisler’s Ernste Gesaenge with A Far Cry chamber orchestra in Boston, Copland’s Old American Songs with the Kansas City Symphony, Schubert’s Die Winterreise with Diderot String Quartet, and performances and the recording of Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard with the vocal group Conspirare.
Dashon Burton's opera engagements include singing Sarastro in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in Dijon and Paris, and the role of Jupiter in Rameau’s Castor and Pollux with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. He has toured Europe in J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) with Christoph Prégardien's Le Concert Lorrain, and in Italy with Masaaki Suzukii and the Yale Schola Cantorum in J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passions (BWV 244), a work he also sang on tour in the Netherlands with the NNSO.
Dashon Burton began 2014-2015 seson singing in the new St. Mark's Passion at the Oregon Bach Festival, performing the role of Jesus in J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passions (BWV 244) at the Carmel Bach Festival and by joining the American Classical Orchestra as a soloist in J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor (BWV 232) at Alice Tully Hall. Later this season Burton took on the role of Jupiter in Les Talens Lyriques' production of Castor and Pollux in Tolouse, France, and sang J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 82, Ich habe Genug, with Seraphic Fire in Miami.
Dashon Burton's Ravinia recital, based on his recent recording, "Songs of Struggle and Redemption: We Shall Overcome", led off his 2016-2017 season, followed by his performance of works by Aperghis and Stockhausen – as well as his own composition, Light Year, – in the 2016 Resonant Bodies Festival at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. With Ensemble ACJW, he appeared in Arvo Pärt’s Passion in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.
Praised for his "nobility and rich tone," (The New York Times) and his "enormous, thrilling voice seemingly capable ... [of] raising the dead;" (Wall Street Journal), Dashon Burton has appeared in the Johannes Brahms' Requiem and L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra in the last two seasons; also the W.A. Mozart's Requiem in the summer season at Severance Hall. He joins forces with Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst again in 2017-2018 for reprise performances of their groundbreaking production of Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen and for performances of L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in their Prometheus Project, at home and abroad in Vienna and Japan.
In 2017-2018 season, Dashon Burton also sang L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, in Sweden with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Orlando Philharmonic. He appeared twice at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York for G.F. Handel's Messiah and in the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road, and performed in David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He revisited the role of Sarastro in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on tour with Opera de Dijon in Limoges and Caen and sang recitals with Lindsay Garritson, and with Craig Hella Johnson for Conspirare in Austin. Throughout the season he continued to tour with the Grammy-winning contemporary vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, and ended the season at Grant Park Music Festival singing William Walton's Belshazzar’s Feast.
Dashon Burton's 2018-2019 season begins with his debut at the Salzburg Festival in Salomé. He sings L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Dvoark’s Stabat Mater with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, W.A. Mozart’s Coronation Mass et al. with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the c minor Mass with the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Requiem with the Bethlehem Bach Festival and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He sings also Haydn’s Creation and the role of Zebul in G.F. Handel's Jeptha, Verdi's Requiem, Moussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, and returns to the Cleveland Orchestra for a subscription week of Schubert’s Mass in E flat Major in May. December finds him performing with the contemporary vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, of which Dashon is an original member, at Paris’Théatre de la Ville in Peter Sellars’ production of Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, un ritual de mort. |
