Opera Idaho has appointed Mark Junkert to the position of Executive Director, upon the retirement of Julie Kilgrow, Executive and Artistic Director. Mark will begin working in transition with Julie on May 19, and will officially assume his position when Julie retires May 22. Opera Idaho expects to hire a part-time Artistic Director at some time in the near future.

Mark comes to Idaho from New York City and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. In St. Paul he was Managing Director of Skylark Opera. Concurrently, he served as Executive Director of the Martina Arroyo Foundation, a New York-based organization dedicated to training young opera singers. Mark has also held positions as Executive Director of The Collegiate Chorale in New York, Director of Marketing for Augsburg Fortress, Publishers in Minneapolis, and Executive Director of the National Lutheran Choir in Minneapolis. A native of Minnesota, Mark studied voice and opera in the Graduate School of Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying with William Warfield. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of Denver.