Stephen Varcoe is one of Britain's most distinguished baritones, especially acclaimed in the field of Baroque music and in the song repertoire. He has made about 150 recordings, collaborating with John Eliot Gardiner for Philips, Erato and DG Archiv on discs of Purcell, Handel and Bach, and has joined Richard Hickox for numerous releases of Haydn, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Grainger and Britten on Chandos.

His musically fruitful relationship with Hyperion Records has produced many fine recital discs, from the romantic and sensuous French songs of Hahn, Chabrier and Fauré with Graham Johnson to the quintessentially English Finzi, Gurney, Parry, Stanford and Armstrong Gibbs with Clifford Benson and Roger Vignoles. With Graham Johnson, Stephen was the second artist after Dame Janet Baker to be invited to interpret Schubert for the celebrated complete Hyperion series. His versatility also encompasses recordings of twentieth century works by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Nigel Osborne, Thea Musgrave and John Tavener.

Stephen is also a professor at the Royal College of Music in London, where he now leads classes in Performance Technique and in English Song, as well as individual coaching, and is becoming well known for his inspiring lectures and masterclasses. Since October 2008 he has been teaching choral scholars at the celebrated choir of Clare College, Cambridge. He has given series of seminars at the University of York on Performance, teaches at the Summer Schools in Dartington and Hereford, and gives masterclasses at festivals, colleges and schools around the country. Last year he travelled to Vancouver for a week of English Song classes, and in the autumn he was in Jerusalem where he was involved in giving a week of Baroque music classes.