Biography

Khori Dastoor, General Director and CEO of Houston Grand Opera, is a passionate believer in great art and its power to transform society. She has dedicated her life to supporting artistic excellence through initiatives surrounding innovation, accessibility, diversity, talent incubation, and fundraising. She joined HGO in 2021 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, unprecedented financial stability, and innovations including a new digital media studio. Dastoor’s belief that every member of Houston’s diverse international community deserves access to great art and culture has defined her core priorities for HGO. These include presenting world-class productions and original new works grounded in Houston; cultivating the talents of promising emerging artists from across the globe; and increasing diversity on the stage, in the audience, and within the organization. Dastoor brings to her vision for HGO a multifaceted perspective that draws on her expertise in arts administration as well as her experience on the artist side as a lyric soprano who performed internationally, and on the funding side as a former member of foundation leadership for the Packard Humanities Institute. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Opera America, where she is the Co-Chair of the Learning and Leadership Council and a founding member and mentor for the Mentorship Program for Opera Leaders of Color, as well as the Advisory Board of the Asian Opera Alliance. She assists with industry efforts to identify young talent as a judge for the Richard Tucker Awards and the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Dastoor holds a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree from UCLA. She and her husband are the proud parents of two young daughters.