Since winning the 1996 Queen Elisabeth International Voice Competition and the prestigious American vocal award, the Walter W. Naumburg Competition (1999), Stephen Salters has traveled the world performing in both opera houses and concert halls.

On the opera stage with over 30 roles, he excels equally in contemporary works and standard repertory. He has been acclaimed throughout Europe, the UK, Asia and the United States in roles by Bizet (Toreador/Carmen), Mozart (Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva/Le nozze di Figaro and Guglielmo/Cosi fan tutte); Donizetti (Malatesta/Don Pasquale) (Belcore/L’Elisir d’Amore; Gluck (High Priest and Hercules/Alceste); Handel (Melisso/Alcina and Achilla/Guilio Cesare); Leoncavallo (Silvio/I Pagliacci); Rossini (Dandini/La Cenerentola); Shostakovich (Kovalyov/The Nose); Weill (Bill/ Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny ); and as Captain Balstrode in Britten’s Peter Grimes at Tanglewood on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the piece’s American premiere. He created the role of the Minotaur in the world premiere of Philippe Fénelon’s Les Rois for Opéra National in Bordeaux, and the title role in Elena Ruehr’s Toussaint Before the Spirits for Opera Boston.

As a recitalist, Stephen Salters is also a much sought-after interpreter and advocate of ‘new music’. His collaborations include a dance/recital program under the combined auspices of Ravinia and the Luna Negra Dance Theatre, featuring the world premiere of a song cycle by Ana Lara; the commission of a cycle by William Bolcom for Stephen Salters and The Lark String Quartet; and another by French composer Pierre Ruscher.

He has demonstrated his versatility on the concert stage in such works as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Symphony No. 8 and Songs of a Wayfarer, Copland’s Old American Songs, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, Zemlinsky’s Symphonic Songs, and the Brahms Requiem as well as Handel’s Messiah.

Stephen Salters has performed under the batons of many celebrated conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Seiji Ozawa, Ivor Bolton, Will Crutchfield and Leonard Slatkin. He has also collaborated with some of the world's most important stage directors such as Francesca Zambello, Robert Wilson and Colin Graham.

His recordings include a recital CD of French mélodies, German lieder and spirituals with pianist Sheila Kibbe for Cypres, Telarc’s award-winning recording of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, the dance opera entitled Toussaint Before the Spirits which was released on the Arsis label and a DVD of Fénelon’s Les Rois.

Stephen Salters conducts masterclasses and has a residency called Until Now for young singers.