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Houston Grand Opera
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==History== In 1955, the German-born impresario [[Walter Herbert (conductor)|Walter Herbert]] and Houstonians Elva Lobit, Edward Bing, and Charles Cockrell founded the company.<ref name="Giesberg"/> Its inaugural season featured two performances of two operas, [[Salome (opera)|''Salome'']] (starring [[Brenda Lewis]] in the title role) and ''[[Madama Butterfly]]''. [[David Gockley]] succeeded Walter Herbert as general director in 1972. During Gockley's tenure, the company began regularly commissioning and producing new works, primarily from American composers. Gockley remained as general director until 2005. Anthony Freud succeeded Gockley as general director in 2005, and held the post until 2011. Following Freud's departure, joint leadership was shared between Patrick Summers, who had been music director at HGO since 1998, and Perryn Leech, who joined the company in 2006 and became chief operating officer in 2010. Summers took the titles of artistic director and music director, and Leech became managing director. For the 2017β2018 season, HGO performed at the 'HGO Resilience Theater', a temporary space created in an exhibit hall at the George R. Brown Convention Center, after the Wortham Theater Center was closed due to flooding from [[Hurricane Harvey]] in August 2017.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Forced Out by Flooding, Houston's Opera Gets On with the Show|last=Oestreich|first=James R|date=October 23, 2017|work=New York Times}}</ref> Leech stood down as managing director of the company in December 2020.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://www.houstongrandopera.org/media/53rms4is/final-11-20-2020-press-release.pdf | title=Managing Director Perryn Leech has decided to leave Houston Grand Opera after 14 years | publisher= Houston Grand Opera | date=20 November 2020 | access-date=2021-07-15}}</ref> In June 2021, the company announced the appointment of Khori Dastoor as its next general director and CEO, effective January 2022. Dastoor is the first woman ever named to the posts.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://www.houstongrandopera.org/media/a3bg22bj/khori-dastoor-joins-houston-grand-opera-as-the-company-s-new-general-director-and-ceo.pdf | title=Khori Dastoor Joins Houston Grand Opera as the Company's New General Director and CEO | publisher= Houston Grand Opera | date=29 June 2021 | access-date=2021-07-15}}</ref>
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