Dawn Wolski Steps Down From Inland Northwest Opera
SPOKANE, Wash. – It is with gratitude and sadness that the Board of Directors of Inland Northwest Opera announces their acceptance of Dawn Wolski’s resignation as General and Artistic Director of Inland Northwest Opera, effective December 31, 2021.
Dawn Wolski initially joined Inland Northwest Opera in 2017, when INO was still Opera Coeur d’Alene. Within the first year of her appointment as General Director, she oversaw many changes, including the rebranding of Opera Coeur d’Alene to Inland Northwest Opera, to better reflect the mission to serve the entire region and the expanding audience. Following the departure of the previous Artistic Director, Dawn Wolski took on the additional role of acting Artistic Director.
The breadth of Dawn’s knowledge and contributions to Inland Northwest Opera have been immeasurable: she brought fully-staged operas to the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox; oversaw the building of the Opera Truck and implemented an entirely new artistic program for the one-of-a-kind mobile concert venue; released INO’s first full-length filmed opera with an internationally-renowned cast (Orpheus and Eurydice); and successfully increased INO’s yearly operating budget over 2.5x the budget since she was hired in 2017.
As stated in her Letter of Resignation, she is “incredibly proud of the work we have done together—work that has led the way for other performing arts organizations in the region to follow. I am especially proud of the team we have assembled, a truly long time in coming!”
The Board and INO staff members are incredibly grateful for Dawn’s work in quickly and under unprecedented global circumstances bringing the organization to a high-caliber level of both performance and operation.
While INO staff and board members will truly miss Dawn’s energy and artistic acumen, Dawn leaves INO in an optimal position to allow for continued overall growth. Dawn has offered her assistance to the Board and will be helping with the transition.
The Board of Directors has formed a Search Committee and will begin their process of searching for both an Executive Director and an Artistic Director immediately. The position will be posted at inlandnwopera.com.
