Lenox — If Dashon Burton wins the lottery between now and Sunday, don’t worry: He’ll still show up to work at Tanglewood on Sunday afternoon to sing (and close the season) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The Yale-educated bass-baritone loves his work and can’t get enough of it. He’ll be joined on the Shed stage by three other soloists, Jacquelyn Stucker, soprano; Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano; and Ben Bliss, tenor.
When you consider all the orchestras he’s performed with in the past, it’s a little hard to believe that Dashon Burton will be making his Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood debuts on Sunday.
An original member of the groundbreaking vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, Mr. Burton won his first Grammy Award for the group’s inaugural release, which consisted of all new commissions, including Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Partita for 8 Voices.”
I spoke with Mr. Burton this week, a few days ahead of his very first Tanglewood appearance, to see what he had to say about Beethoven and the Ninth Symphony.
You will be singing the bass-baritone part this Sunday in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. You must feel you have something special to bring to this part.Â
Absolutely.
What is it? What’s unique about your performance?
The most special thing about this piece is the amount of joy. It feels like having a really beautiful rainbow presented right in front of you. And, of course, everyone knows the piece is all about joy. But the setting of the piece in this place, this time in history, and the fact that we all need it this year especially … certainly it’s one of my favorite pieces of all time—really incredibly special for me.
If you take a piece like this that is written for the orchestra, and then add the chorus and the voices and everything … just the orchestration alone puts it in a special category in music history. And the way it sounds! All these elements are combined to make this one of the most perfect pieces to listen to at a place like Tanglewood—under the sky.
You are singing a part that has been heard countless times. Yet some in Sunday’s audience will have never heard it before. What do you do for folks who are hearing it for the first time? And how do you make sure everyone can clearly hear every word in your opening statement?Â
Everyone, I believe, deserves to hear this music as if it were their first time. And that’s how I like to perform it as well. If I were to think of myself performing this for each person in the audience individually, or if I were to think of the first time I heard this piece and how much it blew me away, and I just imagine the whole audience is just as excited and grateful as I was the first time I heard it, then it really comes out in a completely different way, and it’s a very special and magical way of performing it—to imagine that the audience is hearing it for the first time, even though that’s not the case—of course, it’s one of the most popular pieces. But if you sort of take the audience on a journey that reminds them of the first time they heard this piece … It can be a real privilege.
Do you still perform with Roomful of Teeth?Â
Yes, I do occasionally. Schedules are difficult to coordinate, but yeah, I’m still a part of Roomful of Teeth.
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with that group, what is it all about, in a nutshell?Â
Roomful of Teeth is a group of humans who love to use their voices in as many different ways as possible. We basically like to invite as many people into the room as possible to help create these pieces, so that includes teachers of different styles of singing, and it includes the composers of the pieces. It includes all kinds of other loved ones and family members. From the first moment of creation, we love to work with as many people in the room as possible. It’s a unique way of making music, of singing, and even—in a way—of being human.
Does Roomful of Teeth have a fixed line-up of personnel?Â
We perform with eight people, unless it’s a really special event. We have a roster of about 15 people within our organization who come in and out and sing with the group.
As a young singer, what do you aspire to?
The thing I aspire to the most as a singer is to really complete the work of music. I’m being a bit tongue-in-cheek here: I’ll never complete the work of music. But the work of music is to inspire every human on the planet through song, through music, to just be a better version of themselves and just to love everyone around them as much as possible.
Are there people you’d like to work with that you haven’t worked with yet, like conductors?
Yes, of course, but I don’t know that I could come up with a list of people off the top of my head.
That’s not where you focus your attention.
It’s not even that as much … I have the luckiest job in the entire world, and I have done so many amazing things. So, often, when people ask me, “What’s next for you?” I just kind of … my wish list is just doing more of the same.
Were I to win that billion-dollar lottery of a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn’t run out of the office, tipping over every computer on my way out. I would do exactly what I already do, except that I would just do more of it. I would hire more of my friends. I would be able to travel more and meet more people around the world. I’d be able to bring this message of music and joy to more people. Because I want to inspire everyone to be a better version of themselves.
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See Dashon Burton sing in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus Sunday, August 28 at 2:30 p.m. Purchase tickets here.
