ArtsFest 2026

Dashon Burton

Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), three-time Grammy-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has built a vibrant career, performing regularly throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Burton’s 2024/25 season begins with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, led by Gustavo Dudamel. Highlights of the season include returns to the Milwaukee Symphony for his second season as Artist-in-Residence, featuring Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and later Bach’s Ich habe genug, both conducted by Ken-David Masur. He makes his Boston Symphony subscription debut with Michael Tilson Thomas’ Walt Whitman Songs, conducted by Teddy Abrams, and his Toronto Symphony debut in Mozart’s Requiem under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Additional performances include Brahms/Glanert’s Serious Songs and Mozart’s Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève; Mozart’s Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård; and Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony, led by Masaaki Suzuki.

During the 2023/24 season, Burton collaborated frequently with Michael Tilson Thomas, including performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and Copland’s Old American Songs with the New World Symphony. He also sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, Handel’s Messiah with both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed the title role in Sweeney Todd at Vanderbilt University. With the Cleveland Orchestra, he appeared in a semi-staged production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. As the Milwaukee Symphony’s Artist-in-Residence, Burton joined Ken-David Masur for three subscription weeks.

A multiple award-winning artist, Burton earned his second Grammy Award in 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for his role in Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra (Chandos). He won his first Grammy in 2013 as an original member of the groundbreaking ensemble Roomful of Teeth for their debut album of new commissions. In 2024, he earned his third Grammy for their latest recording, Rough Magic, featuring works by Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, Peter Shin, and Eve Beglarian.

Burton’s discography also includes Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome (Acis); the Grammy-nominated recording of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road (Naxos); Holocaust, 1944 by Lori Laitman (Acis); and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. His album of spirituals received critical acclaim, with The New York Times calling it “profoundly moving…a beautiful and lovable disc.”

Burton holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He is currently an assistant professor of voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

Travis Head

Travis Head’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States. He has been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Ox-Bow, Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and he is a 2015 recipient of a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship. He holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and a BA from the University of Mary Washington and is Associate Professor of Drawing at Virginia Tech’s School of Visual Art.

Travis Head: Artist Statement

My work explores personal narrative through drawing and writing. Growing up in a family that celebrates collection and commemoration, it has always made sense to me to use my life as subject matter. My Reading Lists record the day-to-day through accretion, layering image and text within a single picture plane. Their function is primarily documentary in nature; accumulations of information that tend to sidestep emotional associations. I take a more reflective position in my journals and comics, distilling memory into subjective personal mythology through sequential narrative. The Merit Badge Project represents an attempt to use art to guide experience rather than reflect upon it through the completion of self-assigned tasks and challenges. Collectively, these avenues in my work combine drawing and story-telling to both keep and give a self-accounting; one that I hope is not only singularly personal, but also emblematic of a shared contemporary experience.   

Head will present an artist talk at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 26, in Room 116 of the Truman T. Lowe Center for the Arts, followed by a public reception at 5 p.m. celebrating the opening of his exhibition, Busy Boys, Better Boys, in the UWL Art Gallery. All events are free and open to the public.

The exhibition “Travis Head: Busy Boys, Better Boys” will be on view March 26–April 12, 2026, in the UWL Art Gallery, located on the first floor of the Lowe Center for the Arts.

Head’s work combines drawing and writing to explore personal narrative, memory, and the everyday accumulation of lived experience. Through layered imagery and text, his drawings function as documentary records that capture fragments of daily life and transform them into visually rich storytelling.

“ArtsFest Advance! allows our students and community to engage directly with accomplished artists whose work is shaping contemporary creative practice,” said the School of Visual & Performing Arts. “Travis Head’s work demonstrates how visual art can merge storytelling, observation, and personal history in compelling ways.”

Head’s artwork has been exhibited widely throughout the United States. He has received prestigious artist residencies at organizations including MacDowell, Yaddo, Ox-Bow, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and he was awarded a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship. Head holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and currently serves as Associate Professor of Drawing at Virginia Tech’s School of Visual Arts.

During his residency at UWL, Head will also work directly with students through a hands-on Risograph workshop held March 23 and March 25 in the University Art Gallery. Participants will experiment with drawing, writing, and collage to construct short visual narratives while learning Risograph printing techniques.

Head’s visit is part of ArtsFest Advance!, a series of guest artist residencies leading up to ArtsFest Weekend, UW–La Crosse’s annual celebration of the arts that highlights the creativity and achievements of students, faculty, and guest artists across the visual and performing arts.

The UWL Art Gallery is open 1–8 p.m. Monday–Thursday and 1–5 p.m. Friday–Sunday, and all exhibitions and events are free and open to the public.

Charissa Bertels

Charissa Bertels is a Broadway actor and champion of new musicals. She performed on Broadway and at Madison Square Garden in the Original Broadway Cast of Pasek & Paul's A Christmas Story and toured the country in the first national tour of If/Then, starring Idina Menzel, La Chanze and Anthony Rapp. As part of the singing ensemble for New York City Center Encores' productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Lady Be Good, her work can be heard on the subsequent cast recordings, featuring Megan Hilty and the legendary Tommy Tune. 

Charissa starred to rave reviews in her Kleban Award-winning, original one-woman musical, My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend, at Merrimack Repertory Theatre (IRNE Award for Best Solo Performance), Arizona Theatre Company, Human Race Theatre Company (Best Leading Actress in a Musical), and Idaho Repertory Theatre. A cast album is out through Joy Machine Records on October 17! In addition to her own writing and producing projects, she teaches at New York Film Academy's Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre, holds an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from the University of Idaho and a Bachelor's of Music from Kansas State University, and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

During her residency, Bertels will work directly with students through a masterclass titled “Create Your Theatrical Fate,” an interactive workshop designed to help emerging theatre artists explore how to generate and produce their own creative work. The session will include discussion of Bertels’s professional journey, her experience developing new theatrical projects, and practical strategies for students interested in creating original performance work.

The workshop will culminate in a collaborative creative exercise in which students brainstorm and pitch imaginative “mad-lib musicals,” encouraging participants to think boldly about storytelling and theatrical concept development.

Later that evening, Bertels will present a public concert showcasing music and stories from the world of contemporary musical theatre and new works development. The performance will feature selections from productions Bertels has performed in, produced, or helped develop, including A Christmas Story: The Musical and If/Then.

The concert will conclude with several songs from Bertels’s original one-woman musical, My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend, a deeply personal work that explores love, loss, and memory through music and storytelling.

Bertels is an accomplished Broadway performer, writer, and producer known for her commitment to developing and championing new musical theatre. Her work spans Broadway productions, national tours, concerts, and original theatrical projects, and she frequently mentors young artists interested in shaping their own creative careers.

“ArtsFest Advance! gives our students the opportunity to engage with working artists who are actively shaping the contemporary arts landscape,” said Dr. Pete Rydberg, Director of UWL’s School of Visual & Performing Arts. “Charissa Bertels’s experience performing, producing, and creating new work offers invaluable insight for students interested in building sustainable artistic careers. We are thrilled to have her to campus.”

Bertels’s residency is part of ArtsFest Advance!, a series of visiting artist events leading up to ArtsFest, UW–La Crosse’s annual celebration of the arts featuring performances, exhibitions, and creative activities across campus.

The evening concert will be free and open to the public.