Dastoor has dedicated her career as an arts leader to initiatives surrounding innovation, accessibility, diversity, talent incubation, and fundraising.
[7] Dastoor’s belief that every member of Houston’s diverse international community deserves access to great art and culture has defined her core priorities for HGO.
These include presenting world-class productions and original new works grounded in Houston; cultivating the talents of promising emerging artists from across the globe; and increasing diversity on the stage, in the audience, and within the organization.
[9] Under her leadership, HGO[10] produced a new mainstage production of Dame Ethel Smyth’s 1906 opera The Wreckers[11] for the company's 2022-23 season.
[12] In March 2023, Dastoor announced HGO's 2023-24 season[13] and its opening production of the mainstage world-premiere of Intelligence, the company's 75th commissioned opera.
Created by composer Jake Heggie, librettist Gene Scheer, and director/choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the new opera shares the story of a women-run pro-Union spy ring during the Civil War.
[16] In response to the pandemic, Dastoor quickly launched the Opera San José Artist and Musicians Relief Fund,[17] one of the nation's first initiatives of its kind.
[23] Concurrently, Dastoor served as a member of foundation leadership at the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI), which funds initiatives encompassing arts, music, and archaeology.
In this capacity she worked closely with PHI's president and various grantee organizations on a wide range of collaborative projects involving performance, historical conservation, and digital musicology.
Dastoor’s operatic repertoire included such roles as Gilda (Rigoletto), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Sophie (Werther), Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Despina (Così fan tutte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro),[26] Micaela (Carmen), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Manon (Manon), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Gabrielle (La Vie parisienne), Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Lakmé (Lakmé), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor),[27] and Cunegonde (Candide).