Charles Robert Stephens's career spans a wide variety of roles and styles in opera and concert music. His performances show "a committed characterization and a voice of considerable beauty." (Opera News) At the New York City Opera he sang the role of Professor Friedrich Bhaer in the New York premiere of Adamo’s Little Women, and was hailed by The New York Times as a "baritone of smooth distinction." Since his debut as Marcello in La Bohème, Mr. Stephens’s New York City Opera roles include Frank in Die Tote Stadt, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and 43 performances as Germont in La Traviata on tour across the US.

Mr. Stephens has sung on numerous occasions at Carnegie Hall in a variety of roles with the Oratorio Society of New York (St. Matthew Passion), the Masterworks Chorus (Messiah), and Musica Sacra (Lord Nelson Mass). Recent Carnegie Hall performances with Opera Orchestra of New York have included roles in Otello, Lucrezia Borgia, and Adriana Lecouvreur.

Mr. Stephens's many operatic roles include Rigoletto (National Theater of Taiwan), Amonasro (El Paso Opera), Germont (Montevideo, Uruguay and Minnesota Opera), Rodrigo (Boston Bel Canto), Count di Luna (Boston Bel Canto), Gianni Schicchi (Buffalo Opera), Tonio ( Di Capo Opera), Enrico (Connecticut Opera), Sharpless (National Theater of Santo Domingo), the Barber in Figaro (Hawaii Opera) and many others, with leading opera companies throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Some notable engagements include roles in a Baroque Opera in Seattle, Scarpia in Tosca with Spokane Opera, Belcore in l’elisir d’amore with the Helena Symphony, Britten’s Cantata Misericordia in Tacoma and Seattle , Verdi’s Requiem in Philadelphia, Messiah with the Santa Fe Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Helena Symphony, Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony with the Tacoma Symphony, the title role in Rigoletto with the Spokane Symphony, The High Priest in Samson and Delilah in Birmingham and the Mozart Requiem in Walla Walla. Festival appearances include performances at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and the Methow Chamber Music Festival, a return engagement at the Spoletto Festival in the Brahms Requiem with the Westminster Choir and TV appearances in New York City as a featured artist with “Regina Resnik Presents.”

Recent engagements include Elijah with Seattle Pro Musica, Messiah with the Helena Symphony, Carmina Burana at Whitman College and the Brahms Requiem with the Bellingham Festival.

Mr. Stephens has taught at Portland State University and continues as instructor at Pacific Lutheran University and University of Puget Sound.