A vocal quartet based in downeast Maine, Singin' Local sings mostly a cappella music, featuring the compositions of Artistic Director Anna Dembska.
Singin' Local also performs traditional Balkan songs, shape-note hymns, a capella repertoire from the early to late Renaissance, and contemporary and traditional music from all over the world.
The Singers
Soprano Anna Dembska has performed her original music and theater works internationally, in venues ranging from The Maine Festival to Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Her music, described as "hauntingly beautiful" by the Bar Harbor Times and "handsomely realized" by the New York Times, is inspired by early music, improvisation, international melodies, rhythms, and vocal timbres, and the physical pleasure of singing.
Frank Bachman, Singin' Local's baritone, a native of Pennsylvania, has had the pleasure of touring in the national and international companies of the musical Evita. He has performed as an actor/singer in theaters along the east coast and spent several seasons at The Deck House Cabaret in Bass Harbor, Maine as a featured player. He now enjoys directing theater at MDI High School and in being an occasional guest vocalist at George's Restaurant in Bar Harbor. In 2001 he toured Greece in Aristophanes' The Frogs.
Bronwyn Kortge, soprano, directs and performs with "Impromptu!", an eleven-person vocal ensemble which is earning acclaim throughout Maine. She also directs the vocal music program at Mount Desert Island High School, and is a private voice instructor. Bronwyn has been a principal player on stage in the Hancock County Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and directs the vocal ensembles and musical play at Southwest Harbor's Summer Festival of the Arts.
Tom Wallace, tenor and pianist, has been active in the Mount Desert Island area as music director, pianist, teacher and composer for over 10 years. He is presently music director at St. Saviour's Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor, director and co-founder of Eden Children's Chorus and Ensemble, assistant conductor and accompanist for Acadia Choral Society, accompanist for Mount Desert Summer Chorale and teacher and choral director at Summer Festival of the Arts. His first major choral work, Winter Night Gloria, was premiered in 2001 by the Acadia Choral Society, accompanied by members of the faculty of the Julliard School of Music under the direction of Shirley Smith.