Biography

Khori Dastoor, General Director and CEO of Houston Grand Opera since 2021, is a passionate believer in great art and culture, its power to transform society, and the importance of making it accessible to every member of Houston’s diverse international community. The fourth General Director in company history, major achievements during her tenure include historic growth in subscriber retention, single ticket sales, and overall revenue; the 2023 world premiere of Jake Heggie, Gene Scheer, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s internationally acclaimed world-premiere opera Intelligence; the 2022 original production of The Wreckers, a lost masterpiece by Dame Ethel Smyth that had never been staged by a major America opera company; HGO’s first-ever livestreamed mainstage opera, Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day, in its 2021 world premiere; a new partnership with Apple Music Classical, expanding the company’s reach and sharing its world-class artistry with audiences across the globe; and the expansion of the company’s public programming initiatives in partnership with organizations throughout Houston. Meeting the needs of families in the ever-growing metropolis of Houston is another important focus for Dastoor. In its 2024-25 season, HGO presented the first annual HGO Family Day Presents Cinderella, a special day for Houston families headlined by a relaxed-environment performance of Rossini’s opera, directed by superstar mezzo-soprano and working mom Isabel Leonard. Family Day returns in the 2025-2026 season, featuring Sasha Cooke in her directorial debut.

Named one of Houston’s Most Admired CEOs by the Houston Business Journal (2023) and honored as a one of the city’s 50 Most Influential Women by Houston Woman Magazine (2022), Dastoor currently serves on the Board of Directors for Opera America, where she is the Co-Chair of the Learning and Leadership Council; the New England Conservatory’s Institute for Concert Artists; the Electronic Media Association Board; the Executive Women’s Partnership of Greater Houston; and the Houston Theater District. In addition to mentoring the next generation of artists through lectures at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the Music Academy of the West, Yale University, the National Opera Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Juilliard School, New York’s LaGuardia Performing Arts High School, and Houston’s world-renowned Kinder High School for the Performing Arts, she assists with industry efforts to identify young talent as a judge for the Richard Tucker Awards, the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, the Sullivan Awards, the Paris Opera Competition, and the Marion Anderson Award at Washington National Opera.

Dastoor is a frequent guest speaker on the value of arts and culture in contemporary society, with recent engagements at the Aspen Institute, the Greater Houston Partnership, CERAWeek, and the University of Houston McGovern College of the Arts, and upcoming engagements at the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston and the Houston Consular Corps. Dastoor joined HGO from Opera San José, where she served as General Director during a tenure marked by rapid growth of the company’s audience and patron base, and innovations including a new digital media studio. She began her career in arts administration at the Packard Humanities Institute, a private family foundation dedicated to conservation in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, and historic collections. A former lyric coloratura who enjoyed an international performing career for 15 years, she holds a bachelor’s degree with academic honors from the New England Conservatory of Music and completed her graduate studies at UCLA. She and her husband are the proud parents of two young daughters.