Matthew Shilvock Contract as San Francisco Opera's General Director Extended Through 2030–31
matthew shilvock contract extension.pdf Photos
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (July 30, 2026) — The Board of Directors of San Francisco Opera have approved a new five-year contract extension for Matthew Shilvock, the Company’s Tad and Dianne Taube General Director, effective August 1, 2026. The new term, Shilvock’s third, extends his tenure through the 2030–31 season, building on a dynamic period for the Company that has seen the appointment of Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim, the Company’s celebration of its historic 2022–23 Centennial Season, and a new era of artistic energy, community engagement, innovation, audience growth, and transformational philanthropic support.
“On behalf of the entire board of directors, I am very happy to announce Matthew’s contract extension,” said Board President Jack Calhoun. “This is a key piece of ensuring we keep the tremendous momentum we have seen over these last few years, and we are lucky to have him at the helm. Working closely with Matthew, I appreciate his unique ability in the complex world of large opera companies to work with his team to deliver top-tier artistry, manage the financial complexities of running a large performing arts organization, and establishing meaningful relationships with our donors, who are the lifeblood of our organization.”
“It is an extraordinary honor to continue serving a company with such a storied legacy and such boundless possibility,” said Matthew Shilvock. “San Francisco Opera is an incredible creative community, with company members and patrons passionately committed to art that helps us understand the world and our place in it. We’re entering an era of vital energy for the theatrical arts, celebrating the power of live, human storytelling, and embracing the possibilities of new technologies. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to continue working as part of this remarkable company of extraordinarily talented people as we shape the future together.”
Matthew Shilvock became San Francisco Opera’s seventh general director in August 2016, following in the footsteps of his mentor David Gockley. The just-concluded 2025–26 Season—Shilvock’s tenth season as general director and
twentieth overall with the Company—introduced a bold new San Francisco Opera-commissioned work into the repertory, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s The Monkey King. Based on Journey to the West, one of China’s literary classics, The Monkey King sold-out its entire run before opening night and attracted tremendous philanthropic support and critical acclaim.
Matthew Shilvock; The Monkey King world premiere; Antony and Cleopatra world premiere; El último sueño de Frida y Diego; Innocence U.S. premiere. Photos: Cody Pickens (Matthew Shilvock portrait); Cory Weaver
The Monkey King world premiere (2025) continued the Company’s ambitious commissioning program, following the world premiere of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra (2022) conducted by Maestro Kim, Bay Area premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego (2023), and U.S. premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (2024). Under Shilvock, San Francisco Opera has commissioned or been a part of the co-commissioning consortium for eight new works to date, also including operas by Jake Heggie (It’s A Wonderful Life), Mason Bates (The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs), Rhiannon Giddens (Omar), and Missy Mazzoli’s The Galloping Cure, which receives its U.S. premiere in Fall 2027.
New production of Parsifal led by Eun Sun Kim; Kim and Ring Cycle director Francesca Zambello.
Photos: Matthew Washburn (l,c); Cody Pickens (r)
The past season also unveiled a new Parsifal, part of Eun Sun Kim’s Wagner and Verdi initiative, leading to her first Ring cycle in Summer 2028. Appointed by Shilvock as the Company’s fourth music director in 2019, Kim began her music directorship in 2021, and her contract was recently extended through the 2030–31 Season.
New San Francisco Opera productions of Tosca, The Marriage of Figaro, and Orpheus and Eurydice. Photos: Cory Weaver
Over the last decade, the Company has invested in rebuilding core repertory productions, including new, San Francisco Opera-built productions of Tosca, La Traviata, the Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy (The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni), Fidelio and Orpheus and Eurydice, in addition to Parsifal, reflecting Shilvock’s commitment to keeping the theatrical arts a flourishing part of the Bay Area’s cultural landscape.
2021 The Barber of Seville live drive-in performances at San Rafael’s Marin Center; Bohème Out of the Box; The Barber of Seville Encounter. Photos: Stefan Cohen, Kristen Loken, Reneff-Olson Productions
Shilvock’s tenure has also overseen the Company’s reemergence from the global COVID-19 pandemic. In one of the first large-scale returns to live opera performance, a specially adapted production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville performed on a music festival stage in a drive-in setting marked the Company’s first live performances in 16 months. This period ushered in a new focus on innovation for the Company with the launch of the Carol and Dixon Doll Creative Edge Fund. The fund has enabled projects including the part-opera, part-party Encounter series; The Instigators, a multidisciplinary program bringing a remarkable cohort of thinkers into the world of opera; Bohème out of the Box, taking free opera performances into Bay Area communities in a converted shipping container; and media projects including a livestreaming program broadcasting every opera from the War Memorial Opera House live to the world, and the In Song artist profile series.
The Company’s work on stage and in the community is leading to multi-year growth trends in ticket buyers and donors. To date, The Dolby Family’s Opera for the Bay ticket program has sold nearly 27,000 $10 introductory tickets to the opera. Since the Centennial Season, the number of six- and seven-figure annual donors has increased from 43 to 74, including a recently announced groundbreaking multi-year, multi-million-dollar commitment from Jensen and Lori Huang. The upcoming 2026–27 Season sees another increase in the number of subscribers, including an increase of 12% in full subscribers. Currently San Francisco Opera’s endowment is the largest of any American opera company at over $300 million.
San Francisco Opera’s 104th season opens September 12, 2026 with Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra under Kim’s baton. Highlights of the season include a new co-production with English National Opera of Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots, Wagner’s Das Rheingold, and works by Massenet, Mozart and Puccini, along with a variety of concerts. For more information about San Francisco Opera and the 2026–27 Season, including the Company’s acclaimed young artist development programs, education and community initiatives, livestreams and digital content, archives, free events and introductory ticket programs, visit sfopera.com.
*For the complete press release, open the PDF version above.