Passion and Mercy

Hailed by the Boston Globe as “alight with the spirit of the music,” bass-baritone Dashon Burton is known for performances that move fluidly between the worlds of Bach, spirituals, contemporary music, and the concert repertoire of the great orchestral tradition. A three-time GRAMMY Award winner, Burton has built an international career as a concert soloist, collaborative musician, and educator.

Burton appears regularly with leading orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony. His performances have taken him to major venues and festivals across the United States, Europe, and Asia, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Salzburg Festival.

Highlights of the 2025–2026 season include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Don Fernando in Fidelio with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst; Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer and Mozart’s Requiem with the New Jersey Symphony conducted by Xian Zhang; Britten’s War Requiem with the Erie Philharmonic; and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle with the Cincinnati May Festival. Recent engagements have also included appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and a return to the Carmel Bach Festival.

A frequent collaborator of Michael Tilson Thomas, Burton has appeared in performances of Beethoven’s Ninth, Copland’s Old American Songs, Meditations on Rilke, and Thomas’s Walt Whitman Songs with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, and New York Philharmonic. Other recent performances include Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with the Houston Symphony and Christopher Cerrone’s The Year of Silence with the Louisville Orchestra.

Burton is especially admired for his interpretations of Baroque and oratorio repertoire, appearing regularly in Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and Mass in B minor, as well as Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, and Mozart’s Requiem. His staged roles have included Don Fernando in Fidelio, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Jupiter in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, and the title role in Sweeney Todd. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Masaaki Suzuki, Helmuth Rilling, Harry Bicket, Christophe Rousset, Paul McCreesh, Nicholas McGegan, Craig Hella Johnson, Ken-David Masur, Teddy Abrams, and Franz Welser-Möst.

Burton first came to major award attention as a founding member of the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, with whom he received his first GRAMMY Award. His second GRAMMY came in 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra, and his third for Roomful of Teeth’s album Rough Magic. His recordings also include Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome, Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road, Lori Laitman’s Holocaust, 1944, and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. The New York Times described his spirituals album as “profoundly moving...a beautiful and lovable disc.”

A native of the Bronx and Williamsport, PA, Burton studied at Case Western Reserve University, earned his Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory, and completed his Master of Music at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. Early distinctions in his career include prizes at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition, and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Young American Singer Competition.

In addition to his performing career, Burton is Assistant Professor of Voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he teaches applied voice, vocal literature, and performance classes. He is also active internationally as a teacher and mentor through residencies and masterclasses with organizations including San Francisco Performances, the Carmel Bach Festival, and Roomful of Teeth.