Houston Grand Opera has announced the chairs for its three major fundraising events of the 2026-27 season.

Sylvia Barnes and Jim Trimble will chair the Opening Night Dinner for Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah” on Oct. 23, 2026. Denise Reyes and Matt Healey will chair the 39th annual Concert of Arias, the culminating event of the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, on Feb. 26, 2027. Hallie Finally, Vanderhider, Brigitte Kalai, and Farida Abjani will chair the Opera Ball on April 3, 2027, an evening honoring longtime supporters Betty and Jesse Tutor.

Barnes and Trimble, HGO supporters since 2007, are the founders of Tanda Resources LLC and longtime backers of the company’s Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio. Healey, an HGO board member and Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasury at Cheniere Energy, has underwritten productions including “Salome,” “Parsifal,” and “Tannhäuser”; Reyes is an assistant professor of industrial and organizational psychology at Rice University. Vanderhider serves on the boards of Oil States International and EQT Corporation; Kalai is a former pediatric nurse and founding member of the Houston Methodist Academic Institute’s Translational Research Initiative; Abjani is CEO and co founder of Aging Gracefully.

Betty and Jesse Tutor have supported HGO since 1997, with Betty a founding member of the Salvation Army Guild and past president of the Houston Symphony League, and Jesse a former leader with the Houston Symphony Society and Endowment.

“Houston Grand Opera’s mission of sharing great art with our city would not be possible without the generosity and commitment of our supporters, whose care for this company knows no bounds,” said General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor, per an official press release.

Proceeds from the events benefit HGO’s mainstage productions, artist development, and education and community programs.