Digital Concert: Dashon Burton, bass-baritone

Virtual Concert

Wed. May 25, 8:00 PM

This performance streams live on Wednesday, May 25, at 8pm from Longy's Pickman Hall, Cambridge, and is available on demand until Tuesday, May 31 at 7pm.

Bass-baritone extraordinaire Dashon Burton makes his Celebrity Series debut with pianist Lindsay Garritson in a program of masterpieces spanning centuries. Storytelling is at the heart of every performance he undertakes, and this recital features songs of life and death, forever entwined in the power of song.

This program, entitled Immortal Dreams, brings together masterworks which celebrate the legacy of composers and their quest to understand mortality itself. In the towering cantata Ich habe genug, J.S. Bach sets a story of seeking this life's greatest and final reward before heading to the next. Continuing in the biblical realm in Four Serious Songs, Brahms wrestles with the titanic questions of life and challenges the stature and meaning of our deeds if they are not sustained by the universal strength of love. Meanwhile, Fauré, nearing the end of his own life at the time of writing Mirages, invites us into endless lakes of the mind, mysterious gardens of the heart, and into the notion of dream itself for a gauzy and scintillating journey through the imagination. Bringing us back to this mortal realm is Margaret Bonds' Three Dream Portraits (featuring Langton Hughes' life-affirming texts), reminding us to take in every moment to prepare for the fight for all to dream of a better world.

Program

Media Partner

“The powerful and expressive bass-baritone Dashon Burton is my top choice among the Celebrity Series of Boston’s spring programs. One of the original founders of the vocal group Roomful of Teeth, Burton has made a brilliant career on his own. His choice of material for this concert, accompanied by pianist Lindsay Garritson, indicates both his taste and ambition. ”
Lloyd Schwartz WBUR

“…the kind of top-shelf performance that has sealed [Burton’s] reputation as one of today’s most compelling performers of sacred music.”
The Boston Globe

“Then came the biggest surprise: the young bass Dashon Burton outshining the trumpet in ‘The trumpet shall sound,’ his enormous, thrilling voice seemingly capable of doing what he was singing about, that is, raising the dead.”
The Wall Street Journal

“This young American singer is the real thing—a bass-baritone with a rich, rounded voice, faultless diction and a natural, expressive style that had one hanging on every word.”
Chicago Classical Review

2021/22 Digital Season

Celebrity Series at Home returns to the digital stage this fall!

Learn More

The 2021/22 Debut Series is generously sponsored by Harriet & David Griesinger and the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

This performance is made possible in part by support from Celebrity Series' LIVE PERFORMANCE! Arts for All Endowment and Innovation Funds, with additional support provided by Peter J. Wender.