San Diego Opera’s new hires show stability, new focus on diversity

In a clear sign of both its financial recovery and its growth in a more inclusive direction, San Diego Opera has recently announced four new additions to its administrative team.

On July 31, the company announced the hiring of new chief financial officer Jeannie Posner, who filled a vacant position, as well as the addition of Alan E. Hicks in the newly created position of director of opera theatre, which is co-funded by San Diego State University, where he’ll also teach full time in the music department.

This morning, the company also announced two more additions to its team whose work highlights the company’s increasing outreach to the region’s Latino community.

Dominic Domingo has been hired as director of artistic administration. The Mexico City native and former San Diegan is a longtime opera industry veteran, most recently with Lo Angeles Opera, where his grandfather, legendary Spanish-born singer Plácido Domingo, has served as general director for 22 years.

Also joining the staff is Andrea Puente-Catán as major gifts officer in charge of Hispanic affairs. She is the former vice president of development and cultural ambassador for the California chapter of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and has more than 10 years of fundraising experience in the opera industry. An accomplished harpist, she is the widow of famed Mexican opera composer Daniel Catán, whose “Florencia en el Amazonas” was produced by San Diego Opera in March.

San Diego Opera General Director David Bennett said the addition of Domingo and Puente-Catán ties into the board of directors’ ongoing efforts to expand its audience.

“Having Andrea and Dominic join San Diego Opera’s staff strengthens our artistic and fundraising capacity and greatly increases our ability to achieve our mission,” he said. “As we continue to build a company that speaks to the diversity and strengths of our unique community, we need to have all aspects of our operations mirror that commitment. Both Andrea and Dominic are highly respected internationally and bring with them well-established relationships. I’m so excited to see what we will achieve together.”

Bennett, who joined the company three years ago, was tasked with reinventing an opera company that nearly shut down in 2014. In the years since, the downsized company has expanded its programming to new venues around the county, it has begun producing edgier, smaller-scale works and it has presented modern works on themes that speak more to communities within San Diego, including Latinos, military veterans and the LGBTQ community.

After a couple of shaky years post-rescue, the company finished its 2017-18 season in the black, and its ticket sales for the upcoming season are significantly ahead of last year. The company’s next major hurdle is building a larger donor base by, in part, tapping the affluent, classical music-loving Latino community in San Diego and Baja.

“I am looking forward to building a cultural bridge between San Diegans and Mexicans,” Puente-Catán said in a statement.

Born in Mexico City and a longtime resident of Los Angeles, Puente-Catán is the founder of Bridges Consulting, which is devoted to expanding Hispanic audiences and donors at arts and cultural institutions. She has worked with L.A. Opera, the former New York City Opera and Gotham Chamber Opera, which Bennett led before he joined San Diego Opera.

Domingo most recently served as assistant company manager for L.A. Opera and associate producer for Opera Recitals at The Broad Stage in L.A. He is, and will remain, the associate producer of the Operalia competition, started by his grandfather in 1993.

He and his wife, Quinn, are relocating to San Diego with their 2-year-old daughter. He’ll start his new position on Sept. 10.

Hicks has spent the past 20 years as an opera singer, teacher and stage director for companies including Minnesota Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Tulsa Opera and many more. In 2013, he was named director of the emerging artist program at Green Mountain Opera Festival.

Hicks will split his time between teaching and directing opera students at SDSU and serving as assistant director on San Diego Opera’s mainstage productions.

“By combining resources and needs of both institutions, we are able to elevate the producing expertise of both the Opera and SDSU’s opera program, and in ways we couldn’t achieve alone,” Bennett said.

Posner, a Carmel Valley resident and married mother of three, is a licensed CPA and attorney who has run her own private practice that specialized in working with nonprofits. Before joining the San Diego Opera, she was was treasurer for Congregation Beth El in La Jolla and for the Del Mar Carmel Valley Sharks.

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com