Opera News Shines a Spotlight on HGO’s New Music Director Designate, James Gaffigan

HGO is abuzz as we prepare to launch our huge 2026-27 season with Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah—and to welcome Maestro James Gaffigan, our official new Music Director Designate, to Houston. And as we discovered inside the October issue of Opera News, we’re not the only ones excited! The magazine has a great profile of Maestro Gaffigan by the writer Hugo Shirley.  

Maestro Gaffigan had lots to tell Shirley about growing up in New York, playing the bassoon, learning to read music, discovering conducting, and attending the New England Conservatory. Shirley details Gaffigan’s mentorship under Franz Weiser-Möst at the Cleveland Orchestra, orchestral appointments throughout Europe, and eventual dual appointments as Music Director of both Berlin’s Komische Oper and Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.

The interview took place last spring, when Gaffigan had already stepped down from Valencia while continuing at Komische Opera, and was looking ahead to holding concurrent positions in Berlin and Houston. “The more we talked,” he told Shirley of his conversations with Khori Dastoor ahead of accepting the role at HGO, “the more I realized it's the place with the most potential I've ever seen in my life.” 

The piece made clear that part of Houston’s attraction for Gaffigan is the company’s support of emerging artists. “The Butler Studio is, in my opinion, the greatest young artist programme for a singer in the US now,” he told the publication. “I believe in working with young artists—it's not just a side part of the company… And I think the Houston public, the fundraising team and the donors get that.” 

As for the Maestro’s opening HGO’s new season at the podium for Susannah, writes Shirley: “It's a work that he sees as deeply woven into Houston's rich legacy of performing American opera—Floyd, indeed, set up the company's young artist programme with David Gockley back in 1977.”  

Floyd “has very deep ties with HGO and Susannah is music every American should know as well as Appalachian Spring or Porgy and Bess,” Gaffigan told the magazine. “I'm very excited to be doing it, especially as an American in that company, because we should not be apologizing for great American music.”  

See you soon, Maestro! And thank you, Opera News and Hugo Shirley, for the insightful piece. Subscribe to the magazine to read it in full and access lots of other great content.