Biography

Baritone Charles Austin Piper is from Johnstown Ohio. After performing various theatre roles in High School he decided to audition for musical theatre and opera programs across the country before landing at Otterbein University.

He graduated from Otterbein University in the spring of 2017 with a BM in Vocal Performance. At Otterbein he performed roles such as Count Robinson in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto, King Melchoir in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Mr. Gobineau in Menotti’s The Medium. In that spring he worked with Opera Columbus and their production of Bizet’s Carmen as a member of the chorus.

In the spring of 2018 he performed in the chorus of Cleveland Opera Theatre’s professional debut of Dawn Sonntag’s Verlorene Heimat, was the bass soloist in The Cleveland Chamber Choirs production of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen. In the summer of 2018 he studied at The American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, where he received the Harold Heiberg Liedersänger Preis for outstanding lieder performance. In the fall of 2018 he won 1st place in the advanced men category at the NATS Ohio Competition.

In the spring of 2019 received a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance at Kent State University. While a Master’s Student at Kent State he performed the role of Dr. Falke in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Top in Copland’s The Tenderland, and debuted the role of Brently in Scott Little’s The Story of an Hour.

In the summer of 2019 he worked as a Young Artist with The Ohio Light Opera company performing various roles. In the winter of 2019 He sung the Bass Solos for Master Singers Chorale of Northeast Ohio’s production of Handel’s Messiah. In 2020 he planned on being the bass soloist for Westerville Symphony Orchestra’s production of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, as well as spending the summer as a 2020 member of the Ohio Light Opera company. However due to the COVID-19 pandemic both of those events were cancelled. He currently works as a voice teacher doing both virtual and in person lessons of all ages. In 2021 he performed as a soloist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in there production of Link Up! The Orchestra Moves.

In 2022 he worked with Nightingale Opera Theater in there Young Artist Program. While there he performed in a new composer series where he performed the role of Sherlock Holmes in Hans Bridger Heruth’s A Certain Madness. As well he got the chance to do a masterclass with American opera composer Jake Heggie before performing the role of Paul in his opera If I Were You. In the following year he performed as the baritone soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Westerville Symphony Orchestra. He then went back for his third season with The Ohio Light Opera company where he performed Dick Deadeye in G&S’s H.M.S Pinafore, Sherriff Harry Sullivan in Emmerich Kalman’s Arizona Lady, and was the understudy for King Arthur in Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot.

Starting in the Fall of 2023 until the present day he has worked as a voice professor of classical and musical theater studies, and opera director at Otterbein University. As well he runs his own music studio and performs various concerts in the Columbus area. in the summer of 2025 he joined Opera Project Columbus in there productions of G&S’s H.M.S Pinafore as The Bosun and Victor Herbert’s Naughty Marietta as Captain Dufy.