Stephen Whitford is a dynamic baritone who excels in comic roles and contemporary music. He is an Opera Prelude Young Artist, and was a Britten-Pears Young Artist. He was a prize-winner in the Hurn Court Singer of the Year, Patricia Routledge Prize and Courtney Kenny Award, and a finalist or semi-finalist in the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition, the John Kerr Award and the Charles Wood Song Competition. He has performed on BBC Radio and TV and appeared on some fifteen CD releases. Recent operatic highlights include Dandini in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Hurn Court Opera), and Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller in the European premiere of Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers (UCOpera). He has appeared with the Grange Festival, Longborough Festival Opera, Opera Cameratina, Hurn Court Opera, and Gothic Opera, as well as at Vienna’s Musikverein. Stephen has a special affinity for art song, with a busy programme of recitals across the country. He was invited by Gweneth Ann Rand and Simon Lepper to join them in a recital of French Song in the Aldeburgh Festival 2024 and sang a concert of Brahms and Schumann in Vienna’s Musikverein. On the oratorio platform, key repertoire includes Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem.