Shawna Lucey on Leading Opera San Jose and Bay Area Women in Classical Music

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A fast-rising star in the opera world, Lucey is one of many women holding leadership positions in classical music organizations throughout the Bay Area

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When Elim Chan was announced this week as San Francisco Symphony’s newly appointed Music Director, much was made of the fact that she would be the first woman to lead one of the “Big 7” American orchestras, and rightly so. This was a day many of us have been waiting decades to see. But, what I haven’t seen commented on so much is that Chan will join a Bay Area classical music scene that already includes numerous women in leadership positions, including Eun Sun Kim, Music Director of San Francisco Opera; Carrie-Ann Matheson, Artistic Director of the Merola Opera Program; Valérie Sainte-Agethe, Chorale Director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale; Julie Haydon , Director of Children’s and Youth Choirs at Cantare; and Shawna Lucey, General Director & CEO of Opera San José. Not to imply that we’ve reached a state of equity – we’ll know that when the appointment of a woman leader is no longer news – but in the meantime, let’s celebrate how far things have come, at least in the Bay Area.

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It is in that spirit that I recently talked to Lucey. Her career in particular seems to have shot into the stratosphere over just the past few years. Not only does she lead Opera San José where she will direct John Adam’s Doctor Atomic next season, she will also be helming two productions at San Francisco Opera. And when we spoke, she happened to be calling in from southern California where she was directing Verdi’s Falstaff at Los Angeles Opera . Clearly, Lucey is very much in demand these days so I wanted to know how she got to where she is, what her vision is for Opera San José and what she loves most about her job. Speaking with her, it was clear that she is an extremely smart over-achiever passionately in love with her artform and dedicated to her community. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How did opera first come into your life?

I come from theater and was doing my Master’s Degree in Stage Direction at a Russian theater institute in Moscow. I always have to give the caveat, “I’m not Russian, I’m just from Houston.” [laughs] But Russian theater training is excellent so I had this vision of doing my MFA there, and it was absolutely wonderful. During that time, I had been working at Bread & Puppet Theater in Vermont on and off, and I didn’t want to work there again, but I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. My directing mentor said, “Oh, you read music and you speak a couple of languages. You should really look into directing opera.”

I didn’t know anything about opera really so I applied for every job I could find and the one I got was as a technical apprentice at Santa Fe Opera, and off I went. I had no idea how lucky I was to have gotten that position. One of my first jobs was to set up an orchestra reading of Verdi’s Falstaff . We got all the chairs and stands and everything ready for the orchestra and they came in and started playing, and I thought “Omigod, if my directing work can be centered around this incredible music, wouldn’t I be the luckiest person on earth?” I like to say it was love at first note. I committed myself to opera and never looked back.

What kind of career did you imagine for yourself in opera?

I knew I wanted to be a stage director, that was my number one calling. I really wanted to get in there and make emotionally compelling productions of opera that audiences cherish, that when they come into the theater they know they’ll be well taken care of by the production, by the performances. That was my whole goal and my aspiration, and then… in March of 2020 (remember that time?) I had just finished directing a Lucia in Kansas City and come home to New York City to repack my bags cause I was due to go to Hawaii to direct Salome . Well – I did not go to Hawaii, nor did I direct Salome [for obvious reasons]. It was a time of intense reflection for me, and I thought you know, I really do love this artform so I want to think about what my next career iteration might be, and that’s when I had the idea of becoming a general director.

I joined Columbia University’s Masters of Science program in Non-Profit Management because I knew that I spoke the language of the art fluently, but I needed to also speak the language of the business side fluently. While I was still in the program, Khori [Dastoor, prior GM of Opera San José] moved to Houston. I had worked with her and admired her, and so I thought “Oh, I’ll apply for that position. I won’t get it, but I’ll learn a lot in the process.” And, lo and behold, I got it and moved to San Jose in April of 2022.

Did you have any trepidations that it might be a difficult road ahead for you as a woman in your chosen field?

Oh, yeah. I mean, I believe it’s only like 5% of general directors are women, something like that. I have always understood that the challenges would be very high in any field. I went to an all-girls school in Houston and our principal, she always reminded us that we should be prepared to receive 75 cents on the dollar of what men in an equal position make, and we will work twice as hard to maintain that position. There was a lot of transparency around that in my adolescence, and so I felt very clear-eyed about that fact.

I think I have an advantage here in that our company was founded by a woman, Irene Dalis, and my predecessor is a woman and so there’s a culture of that, for opera and other arts organizations as well, in the South Bay. It’s very common for executive leadership to be women here so that has felt very comforting. It is a bit of an outlier from other markets, for sure.

And at least you weren’t walking into the room as the first woman in charge they’d ever encountered.

No, no, no. It’s much more common at Opera San José for it to be run by a woman actually, and that has been a wonderful kind of intro culture to be in. We have a good mix on our board of directors I would say, and quite a few women who in their professional careers held positions of leadership, so it’s really a very welcoming culture in that respect.

Did you have any key women role models or mentors to help point the way?

Oh, absolutely! I have been very fortunate to have key female mentors. I’ll specifically highlight Jennifer Good, who is the director of production at San Francisco Opera. She has known me since I was a technical apprentice and has been a key mentor for many years. And then Paula Suozzi, who is the Executive Stage Director at the Metropolitan Opera. She is a dear friend and mentor as well. And my directing mentor is also a woman. So I’ve been very fortunate to have a career that’s influenced by female mentors.

And then I am really lucky to have actually more female colleagues than I expected. Just today, I got an email from Annie Burridge who’s the general director of Austin Opera. I’m very close with Allison Swenson who runs Opera Omaha, and of course, Khori in Houston, just to name a few. There’s a lot of really great female colleagues who are doing spectacular work in a number of markets across the country.

How would you describe where things are at right now in terms of equity or parity for women in the classical music world?

That’s such a great question. As I’m speaking to you, I’m actually in Los Angeles directing Verdi’s Falstaff [at Los Angeles Opera ], which I mentioned is the first thing I ever worked on as a technical director. And it’s an opera I really love for a number of reasons. Not only is it Verdi’s last opera, it’s such an absolute musical masterpiece and it’s a comedy, which is so rare. What a delight to get to work on a comedy.

And one of the things that has always inspired me about that opera, and about Merry Wives of Windsor and the Shakespeare as well, is one could posit that Shakespeare was of course writing in the time of the reign of Elizabeth I, and throughout her reign she was assailed with doubts about her ability to hold this most important position for the English people, and yet she was a very strong and capable ruler.

In Elizabethan England, the wives were the keepers of the household purse, and so part of the reason why Falstaff is going after the women is not just to romance them but to get ahold of the finances of the households, and the comedy all pins on how capable and smart and shrewd the women are. And that kind of ability to lead in the household sphere of course scales to the head of the country as well, reflecting on Elizabeth and her abilities as a leader. So I approach it with that knowledge, that that’s some of what Shakespeare’s grappling with and reflecting for his country.

And if we look at the United States today, it’s not just classical music, right? We are but a reflection of our culture. So it’s not that classical music is out of step with the rest of what is happening in the United States. If we look at is the United States full of belief in and support for women in leadership positions, I think we can resoundingly say that is obviously something we still grapple with as a country and as a culture, if we look at elections or the way women’s position has eroded today. So, in terms of parity and equity in the world of classical music, I will just say I think we’re apace with parity and equity in the American ethos. Misogyny is obviously still alive and well amongst us, so it certainly is not something we have defeated, neither as a country nor as an artform.

You’ve got a really full plate these days. In addition to your “day job” as General Director & CEO of Opera San José, next season you’ll be directing two operas at San Francisco Opera – Marriage of Figaro and Tosca – plus Doctor Atomic at OSJ which is an entirely different animal. What does this moment feel like to you? Does it feel like you’ve “arrived?” Does it feel overwhelming?

You know, I’m a mom so doing about six things at once is just the nature of the beast. I mean, there’s no way around that. I like to joke why do one impossible job when you can do three? [laughs] But really and truly, my artistic identity and my executive identity are one and the same. They are fully integrated and they make each other better.

What I mean by that is I know as an executive the finances and the particular challenges of being a classical music performing arts producer in 2026 in the United States, and so it pushes me as an artist to continue to find creative solutions so that we offer the highest caliber of artistic product, because our audiences need it. I fully believe that because of the way we are siloed into our phones, we need community and camaraderie more now than perhaps any time in human history.

One of the things about being overworked, which I’m thrilled to be, is first of all I have always chosen to do more than less. When I was an undergrad, I did two full degrees at the same time. I have a full degree in Theatre in the Performing Arts college, and a full degree in Italian in the Liberal Arts college. It’s not a double major; I have two diplomas.

I knew you had those two degrees, but I just assumed it was some sort of double major.

No, no, I did two at once because I can’t help myself. I am voracious in my love of the artform and my desire to always figure out how I can be a better contributor, both to my community of the South Bay and to the opera industry at large. How can I best dedicate everything I’ve got to this artform th

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/san-francisco/article/Interview-Shawna-Lucey-of-OPERA-SAN-JOSE-20260521)._