ROBERT STAFFORD (bass-baritone) completed an Associate Artist-in-Residency at Opera San Jose in 1995, where he performed leading roles for two years (the San Jose Mercury News described a performance sung "with a supremely seductive swagger and flourish"). In 2003 the Modesto Bee wrote of his essay of the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni: "Stafford has a rich and powerful voice and has the right arrogant manner for the role … smooth and seductive."

Robert has sung with many of the country's leading period-instrument orchestras. The LA Times called his singing of Bach's solo cantata Ich habe genug with the American Bach Soloists "communicative and glowing," and lauded his "uncommonly suave" Polyphemus in Handel's Acis and Galatea with Musica Angelica at the Getty Center. He can be heard as Caronte on a recording of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with Apollo's Fire for the Eclectra label, in Bach's Matthäus-Passion with Jeffrey Thomas and the American Bach Soloists for Koch, and a forthcoming recording of Spohr's Zemire und Azor for The Manhattan School of Music's Opera Theater.

In Europe, he has performed with such esteemed musicians as Max van Egmond, Joshua Rifkin and Jos van Veldhoven in opera and oratorio concerts in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. He made his New York concert debut in Carnegie Hall with the bass solo in Bruckner's Te Deum with the New York Choral Society. Robert composed and performed the puppet opera Mandragora with puppeteer Basil Twist and performance artist Glamamore for HereArts' DreamWorks series in New York City.

Mr. Stafford has been invited to participate in summer festivals across the United States, including the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and the Tanglewood Music Center, where he has had the privilege of singing under such conductors as Robert Spano (Berio's Sinfonia), Federico Cortese (Sam in Trouble in Tahiti), and Stefan Asbury, in the world premiere of Rage d'amours, a new opera by the Dutch composer Robert Zuidam.