Dashon Burton

Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), three-time Grammy winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career appearing regularly throughout the US and Europe.

Mr. Burton’s 2024/2025 season begins with Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl led by Gustavo Dudamel.  Highlights throughout the season include returns to the Milwaukee Symphony for the second season as Artist in Residence for Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and later in the season Bach’s Ich Habe Genug both led by Ken David Masur; his Boston Symphony subscription debut with Michael Tilson Thomas’ Walt Whitman Songs led by Teddy Abrams; his Toronto Symphony debut in the Mozart Requiem led by Jukka-Pekka Saraste; Brahms/Glanert Serious Songs and the Mozart Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony led by Stephane Deneve; the Mozart Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård; and Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony led by Masaki Suzuki.

Burton’s 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, Handel’s Messiah with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and  the title role in Sweeney Todd at Vanderbilt University.  With the Cleveland Orchestra, Burton sang 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.

A multiple award-winning singer, Dashon Burton won his second Grammy Award in March 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with his performance featured in Dame Ethyl Smyth’s masterwork The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra (Chandos). 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, featuring more new commissions from Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, Peter Shin, and Eve Beglarian.

His other recordings include Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome (Acis), the Grammy-nominated recording of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road (Naxos); Holocaust, 1944 by Lori Laitman (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.