Mo Zhou is making her HGO directing debut. Previously for the company, she served as assistant director for La traviata (2017). Zhou’s career spans opera, theater, dance, and film. On faculty at the University of Michigan, she is committed to invigorating the classical canon and spearheading new works. Highlights of the 2022-23 season include Rinaldo at Minnesota Opera, Iphigénie en Tauride at Boston Baroque, and La bohème  with the Music Academy of the West. Companies producing her work include Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin), National Centre for the Performing Arts (China), The Santa Fe Opera, and Florida Grand Opera. She worked on the directing staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago and other companies. Zhou has held directing fellowship at Juilliard, Wolf Trap Opera, WP Theater, Merola Opera Program, and The Glimmerglass Festival. A winner of the OPERA America Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize, she has taught at Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, and NYU. Zhou has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and theater from Bowdoin College, a Master of Fine Arts degree in stage directing from Columbia University, and a certificate in diversity/inclusion from Cornell University.