Brian Staufenbiel heads the Opera Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His directing credits include Bizet's Carmen, Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, Menotti's The Medium, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, Weill's Street Scene and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for which he was awarded the first prize in the National Opera Association Opera competition in New York this year. Staufenbiel has also directed at the Seoul Contemporary Opera Company the Korean premiere of David Jones' opera Bardos and the reprise of Chan Hae Lee's latest opera Back to the Origins. He has also been guest director in the Sherbrooke Summer Music Festival, where he directed works by Ravel and Honegger. He will be returning to the festival this summer to direct and perform in the semi-staged version of Handel's Jephta. This year Staufenbiel also directed the world premiere performance of the final version of Lou Harrison's opera Young Caesar with San Francisco's Ensemble Parallèle.

Staufenbiel is also part of the voice department at UCSC. As a tenor, he has gained considerable recognition and critical acclaim for his performances in oratorios, operas, and solo recitals in the United States and Canada. His more recent opera performances include leading roles in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, Kurt Weill's Mahagonny, and Mechem's Tartuffe. Staufenbiel has appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Rochester Bach Festival in New York State, and sings frequently throughout the Bay Area. He is well known for his dramatic interpretation of the Evangelist role in Bach's Saint Matthew and Saint John Passion.

In addition to live performance, Staufenbiel has recorded for Musical Heritage Society, Koch International Classics, and Helicon Records music by Alessandro Stradella, Heinrich Schütz, Lou Harrison, and Paul Bowles. His most recent recording includes the world premiere recordings of tenor arias from Lou Harrison's opera Young Caesar and the Saint Cecilia Mass (Kleos records). The Staufenbiel/Scharrón Duo has performed from coast to coast Argento's Letters from Composers, set as a one-man opera. The duo recently completed a CD recording of works by Britten, Argento, and Adler (commissioned work).

Staufenbiel holds a doctorate degree in vocal performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music.