UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Dashon Burton, described by The New York Times as “a beloved fixture of the New York choral scene” with a voice “possessed of a clarion D,” will join Michael Mwenso in the next “Meeting the Moment” live webisode.
Mwenso will host the bass-baritone in a free online discussion starting at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24. It will be broadcast via the Zoom conference app, and questions will be taken in real time from audience members via the chat function.
Visit “Meeting the Moment” for more information.
Contributions from the members of the Center for the Performing Arts and a grant from the University Park Student Fee Board help make the program free of charge. Meghan R. Mason Program Endowment and Richard Robert Brown Program Endowment provide support.
The program is part of the center’s “Up Close and Virtual” 2020–21 season. “Meeting the Moment” also is the keystone event of the Fierce Urgency Festival, the center’s commitment to celebrating Black artists and sharing their stories.
Burton portrays mid-20th century urban developer Robert Moses in the multimedia opera “A Marvelous Order,” tentatively scheduled for a November world premiere at Eisenhower Auditorium.
The Bronx, New York, native is a former member of vocal ensemble Cantus and is a founding member of Roomful of Teeth, with whom he earned a Grammy Award for the group’s recording of Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Partita for 8 Voices.” In 2019, Shaw composed “The Listeners” for his baritone.
Mwenso performed for the Center for the Performing Arts recently with The Shakes in a virtual concert. As curator and events programmer at Jazz at Lincoln Center, he has shared the stage with Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jon Batiste, Aaron Diehl, Sullivan Fortner and Jamison Ross.
Geisinger and Northwest provide support for virtual presentations by the Center for the Performing Arts.
Visit “Up Close and Virtual” for more information about forthcoming season events.
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