Wichita Heights High School grad Zeffin Hollis is the new executive director at Opera Kansas.

Hollis is also the managing director and co-artistic director of the Los Angeles-based training program OperaWorks. He plans to be in Wichita, where he is restoring a house, roughly eight days a month.

“My path to opera was quite accidental,” Hollis said. While pursuing a career in acting and musical theater in LA, he began taking voice lessons from a teacher who encouraged him to sing arias to develop his baritone. One day, she invited someone to sit in on a lesson, and he asked Hollis to audition. 

“I like to say that she flim-flammed me into being an opera singer,” Hollis joked. His first gig was as an apprentice for the Santa Fe Opera Festival in 1999, and he went on to sing more than 100 roles. 

Opera Kansas, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, will produce three operas in 2026, one of which is aimed at children. 

Hollis said he’s less interested in producing specific operas in favor of learning what works make sense for this community.

“One of the first things I want to do is reconnect with the talent pool here … and build projects around them,” he said in a message. “The story we’re telling matters, of course, but it also matters who’s telling it and why it matters to this place.

“When we start from the strength of our artists and the community around us, the right repertoire tends to reveal itself. We’re less interested in replicating opera as museum work, and more excited about creating something that feels rooted, urgent, and alive.”

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