ABOUT

View Mr. Eaton’s biography and access press kit below.


Hailed as a "swaggeringly charismatic baritone with a versatile voice,” AMERICAN BARITONE CHARLES H. EATON begins his 2024/2025 season with a return to Minnesota Opera for his role debut as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette. He then makes his role and company debut as Silvio in Pagliacci with Pensacola Opera, and debuts the title role in Don Giovanni with Madison Opera in 2025.

In the summer of 2024, Mr. Eaton joined the renowned Filene Artist program at Wolf Trap Opera for their summer season, where he made his company and role debut as Brother in Seven Deadly Sins. His subsequent role debut in Silent Night garnered the following praise from the Washington Post: “...my favorite performance came from baritone Charles H. Eaton, whose Ponchel was powerfully sung, endearingly acted and endowed with an easy humanity…” He also returned to the prestigious Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in June as baritone soloist in the Duruflé Requiem

Charles graduated the Minnesota Opera Resident Artist program in the spring of 2024, where he received great acclaim for his “beautiful, deep voice” and “astonishingly chameleonic” performances as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Schaunard in La bohème, Argante in Rinaldo, and Masetto in Don Giovanni. Mr. Eaton made his Carnegie Hall debut in the summer of 2023 as the baritone soloist in the Fauré Requiem, and received third place in the Houston Saengerbund Competition.

In the 2021-2022 season, Charles made his recital debut with The Musicians of Ma’alwyck (featuring Finzi’s By footpath and stile performed with string quartet). He covered the role of Mr. Lindquist in A Little Night Music at Arizona Opera, and returned to Minnesota Opera to perform Moralès in their brand new production of Carmen directed by Denyce Graves. In 2021, he won third prize in the internationally renowned Lotte Lenya Competition

In the 2019-2020 season, Mr. Eaton made his role and company debut as Marcello in La Bohème with the Imperial Symphony Orchestra (Lakeland Opera). He also made his international and company debut as the English Ambassador in The Ghosts of Versailles with the Château de Versailles Spectacles. In the previous season, he made role and company debuts as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with New York City Opera in Bryant Park, William Dale in Silent Night with Minnesota Opera, and Vitellius in Hérodiade with New Amsterdam Opera. He returned to Madison Opera as Carl-Magnus in their A Little Night Music, and to Minnesota Opera to create the roles of Arnold Rothstein and George Gorman in the world premiere of Joel Puckett’s The Fix. He also returned to The Glimmerglass Festival for the 2019 summer season to perform Steve / Max in Show Boat and cover Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles.

In the 2017-2018 season, Mr. Eaton made multiple company debuts, including German Sentry/Soldier #3 in Silent Night with The Glimmerglass Festival as a member of the young artist program, Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance with Park Square Theater, and Moralès in Carmen with Madison Opera. He also made his concert debut with The Mankato Symphony Orchestra as Riff in West Side Story.

Mr. Eaton is a graduate of apprentice programs at Minnesota Opera (2022-2024), The Glimmerglass Festival (2018, 2019), Opera Colorado (2015-2017), and Des Moines Metro Opera (2016, 2017). He received his Bachelor of Music in 2013 from the University of Connecticut, and his Masters of Music in 2015 from the University of Minnesota. 

He was a semi-finalist in the 2023 James Toland Vocal Competition, a third-prize winner in the 2023 Houston Saengerbund Competition, a finalist in the 2021 Opera Ithaca Edward M. Murray Vocal Competition, a semi-finalist in the 2020 Premiere Opera Foundation / NYIOP International Voice Competition, a second place winner of the 2019 American Prize Competition, and a district winner of the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition.

Photo by Matt Madison-Clark