• Art Kenne, Artistic Director
• Tom Wallace, Associate Director

Art Kenne began singing in choirs at the age of 5 and playing keyboard at age 6. At age 8, he sang the leading role in Menotti’s opera Amahl and the Night Visitors with the local university chorus and orchestra. He continued his musical passion and graduated from university with a Bachelor of Music Education degree. After graduation he worked for several years as a church music director.

Having grown up on a Texas ranch with its own grass-strip airport, Art was equally comfortable in the aviation field. During his 22-year career with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) he worked at offices based in Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Washington D.C., and New York City.

In 2004, Art took early retirement from FAA to refocus his attention on music. While living in New York City after retirement, he studied with leading singers from the opera stages of Europe and the US (including a former stage director of the Met), as well as with singers from the musical theatre and pop/jazz worlds. He sang free-lance with professional choirs.

In 2006, Art moved from New York City to London to pursue a Masters program at the University of London. After completing the degree (with distinction) he returned to the US and moved to Portland, ME. Art is currently pursuing a Master of Music program in choral conducting at USM, and is in the process of creating a new diversity youth chorus..

Tom always assumed his life would be in music. He “sang” quite loudly in the young children’s choir at church at age 3, and a recording at age 4 indicates that his performance was probably also enthusiastic and strident. With sister Patty already taking lessons, Tom began asking for lessons, but Mrs. Bedford would not teach anyone under age 7. Shortly before he turned 5, his mother began paying close attention to Patty’s lessons, coming home and giving the same lesson to her eager son. By the time he was at his first “official” lesson, Tom was reading and playing music pretty well.

At age 11, Tom won the chance to conduct his school band in a rendition of “White Christmas”, a piece for which he has never learned the words. That Christmas he also received a portable Panasonic tape recorder – a gift which took his recordings to a higher level. In May of that year, Tom performed “Fur Elise” in the Spring Concert, and that summer he was featured as pianist in various States, playing Octavio Pinto’s “Scenas Infantes” on tour across the Country from Pennsyvania to Utah with the Trinity Boy’s Choir.

After studying music theory privately for one year, at age 12 he began traveling to Wilmington Music School for weekly Theory and Music Composition classes.

At the end of the summer following high school, Tom began attendance at West Chester University, PA. He restarted his studies with pianist Ben Whitten, began vocal study with Joy Vandever (who would help him get lead roles in two operatic productions), took classical guitar lessons, and studied composition.

In the fall of 1984, he took time off from school to build a recording studio and apartment on his parents’ property, where his band practiced until 1987, with Tom as lead guitarist. He returned to school in January of 1986 as a student of Robert Bedford, who convinced him that he had to change his major from Education to Performance. In December of 1987, Tom was winner of the school concerto competition, playing the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto with the school orchestra. He graduated Cum Laude in May of 1988.

Tom began a Masters program at West Chester the following September, winning a graduate assistantship to pay for schooling. The following year he transferred to the University of Maryland at College Park, where he had a graduate assistantship for the opera program. After graduation, Tom moved to Maine and began teaching and directing choirs and other musical events. Since then he has worked with people of all ages in a wide range of settings, from pre-school to college, from churches to the opera stage. He has written a considerable amount of choral and other music, some on commission, but most to fill a perceived need for groups with which he was associated.