British baritone Charles Cunliffe is a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music Opera School, where he studied with Giles Underwood and Joseph Middleton. His musical journey began as a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral under Andrew Reid, later returning as a choral scholar under Steven Grahl. He entered the Royal Academy of Music as an undergraduate, completed a postgraduate degree, and subsequently joined the Opera School.

In 2025 at Glyndebourne, Charles was a Jerwood Young Artist and in August was awarded the John Christie Award. The previous month he made his solo operatic debut, going on as Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro under Riccardo Minasi. He also appeared as Kuligin in Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová under Robin Ticciati. At the start of the 2025 season, he was awarded the Miss Miriam Trevaux Award, following his 2024 performances with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus in both the Summer and Autumn seasons, during which he received the Wessex Award from the Wessex Glyndebourne Association.

On the concert platform, Charles won the 2023 Leeds Song / Schubert Institute UK Song Prize and was a finalist in the 67th Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He has performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival in 2021 and 2022, appearing alongside Dame Sarah Connolly and Graham Johnson. Recital highlights include Richard Strauss’s Letzte Blätter at Wigmore Hall (January 2023) and the world premiere of I Wake by Roderick Williams (Spring 2021).

His operatic repertoire includes roles such as Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten), Barone Douphol (La traviata, Verdi), The King (Ariodante, Händel), Tobia Mill (La cambiale di matrimonio, Rossini), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring, Britten), Guccio (Gianni Schicchi, Puccini), and Keeper (The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky).