George Steel to run Dallas Opera

The Dallas Opera, a high-profile regional company that moves into a new Norman Foster-designed home next year, has appointed George Steel as its new general director.

One of New York’s leading specialists in contemporary music, Steel, 41, will join London-born Graeme Jenkins, 49, who has been music director of the company since 1994, at a key juncture in its history. In October 2009, the 52-year-old company will inaugurate the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, in the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, with a production of Verdi’s “Otello.”

Steel, executive director of Columbia University’s Miller Theatre since 1997, begins the new job Oct. 1.