Dastoor, inspired by the region’s tech industry, brought the company forward, introducing digital productions and creating flexible start times and other practices to woo new audiences. Founded in 1984, Opera San Jose has built a reputation for nurturing emerging artists and staging large-scale, professional productions. … There’s just not another company whose call I would have taken.”ĭastoor’s Houston appointment will be a loss for Opera San Jose, but it also casts a spotlight on the company, a bright spot in a South Bay arts scene that has seen symphony and ballet companies rise and fall. “I entered into the process because Houston is so aligned with the values of Opera San Jose, which is really about advancing the form for the future, how we have to adapt and expand with new models to welcome a new generation of patrons in America.
“From my perspective, I didn’t seek this out,” she said. She will be the only woman of color in that role.ĭastoor, who will assume the new post in January, called the offer irresistible and said that Houston Grand Opera’s “sense of opera as an evolving art form” was the deciding factor. Khori Dastoor, the soprano turned top administrator who revitalized Opera San Jose and steered the company through a fraught pandemic year, is leaving the general director post she assumed two years ago for the top job at one of the most renowned and innovative opera companies in the country.Īs general director and CEO of the Houston Grand Opera, the 40-year-old Dastoor will be a rarity in the opera world, where the number of top-tier companies led by women is stunningly low, no more than a handful.
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