A native of Toronto, Heather Kitchen is an arts administrator and teacher with more than 45 years of professional experience. Joining Calgary Opera in January 2019, she serves as General Director and CEO. Heather teaches in the MFA and Graduate Certificate Program in Arts Leadership and Cultural Management at the University of Connecticut.
From 2017 to 2018, Heather served as the Interim Executive Producer, Performing Arts at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity. Prior to this, Ms. Kitchen served as Managing Director of Dallas Theater Center. During her tenure there, the theatre grew its budget from $7M to more than $12M and successfully completed a $13.1M capital campaign. As Executive Director of American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) in San Francisco for 14 seasons, Ms. Kitchen grew the organization’s budget from $11M to $20M. and led a $31.2 M endowment campaign.
Ms. Kitchen was the General Manager of the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton for four seasons and worked in stage management for 15 years in many of the major regional theatres across Canada, including the Stratford Festival, The Neptune Theatre, and Canadian Stage Company.