Dashon Burton, a bass-baritone and founding member of the acclaimed vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, came to Middlebury College a couple of years ago to perform with the Massachusetts-born group. While there, the director of the college’s Performing Arts Series, Allison Coyne Carroll, approached him with an idea: Could Burton do a tribute concert to another bass-baritone, Paul Robeson, who sang in the series 80 years ago?
Burton was intrigued. He and the famous singer-actor-athlete-activist — Robeson was the definition of a Renaissance man — were both Black, and both sang spirituals as well as classical repertoire. “Tell me more,” he said to Coyne Carroll.
That proposal led to this Friday’s concert at the college, “Dreaming in the Light: Remembering Paul Robeson,” a recital by Burton with accompaniment by Sharon pianist Annemieke Spoelstra McLane. The event is a one-off; to Coyne Carroll’s knowledge, Burton isn’t repeating it anywhere else. It is also a chance to hear Burton’s “enormous, thrilling” voice (Wall Street Journal), noted for its “nobility and rich tone” (New York Times), singing a program that includes five selections Robeson sang at the college decades ago.
That Robeson even gave a concert at Middlebury, on December 4, 1946, is surprising: Then 48 years old, the man was a legend. Certainly, he fit into the remarkable performance series, which has included the likes of cellist Pablo Casals and guitarist Andrés Segovia and continues to feature some of the most notable classical acts of today.
Coyne Carroll, who combed the archives to create a list of every concert in the series since 1919, said she was “about 99 percent certain” that Robeson was invited by Alan Carter, a Midd music-faculty member and the founding director of the Vermont State Symphony Orchestra, now the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
The invitation was timely. “This was a very precarious time in [Robeson’s] career: He was being criticized for his communist beliefs,” Middlebury professor emeritus of music Larry Hamberlin said. Hamberlin will give a talk before the concert on the evolution of the Black spiritual tradition and its introduction into the classical genre.
Robeson, whose father was an escaped slave, was born in Princeton, N.J., in 1898. He attended Rutgers College on an academic scholarship and was the third Black student in the school’s history. He became a football star — a two-time All-American player — and the class valedictorian. He then earned a law degree from Columbia Law School while playing two seasons in the National Football League for the Akron Pros and then the Milwaukee Badgers.
Repelled by racism in the legal world, Robeson turned to acting, landing lead roles in Eugene O’Neill plays in a career that would take him to London stages, Broadway and film. He was the first Black actor to have a leading role in a Hollywood film — The Emperor Jones, a 1933 movie of O’Neill’s play — and to play Othello in a U.S. performance of William Shakespeare’s play.
Robeson never had formal voice training. His singing career was launched during the Harlem Renaissance after he performed a few concerts of spirituals with a friend on piano accompaniment; the result was a recording contract with Victor Records. Over his career, he recorded hundreds of songs of all types and performed worldwide. Show Boat composer Jerome Kern is said to have written “Ol’ Man River” after hearing his voice.
People stopped talking about Paul Robeson.
Larry Hamberlin
The injustice of American racism increasingly fueled not just Robeson’s artistic choices but also his far-left politics. Outspoken support of communism led to his being blacklisted in 1950, deprived of a passport for eight years, and officially erased — from Rutgers’ valedictorian records, NFL records and American living rooms in general.
“People stopped talking about Paul Robeson,” Hamberlin noted. “Before the blacklisting, he was one of the most famous African Americans in the world. We’re still reinstating him.”
Burton’s concert is part of that effort, as well as a celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary through “voices that haven’t always been celebrated,” Coyne Carroll said.
To Hamberlin, the two bass-baritones sound remarkably similar, with “very deep” voices “that can also go up fairly high.” (Compare Burton’s YouTube channel videos with Robeson’s version of “Water Boy,” a spiritual Robeson sang at Middlebury that Burton will reprise.)
The difference is that Burton is highly trained: He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Oberlin College & Conservatory and a master’s at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He has won three Grammys — two for Roomful albums and one for his album of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison, a little-known work for bass-baritone, soprano, chorus and orchestra. He also teaches at Vanderbilt University and performs with major orchestras around the U.S.
Like Robeson at his Midd appearance, Burton will open with classical pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Aaron Copland and others before presenting traditional spirituals.
“The idea that you can sing [spirituals] in the language of classical music — that’s a political message,” Hamberlin said. “It’s a message of connection, that the Black American tradition and the European tradition are connected. And, frankly, it’s one we still need to hear today.” ➆
This article appears in The Tech Issue • 2026.
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