The Maine Balkan Choir is under the direction of Sarah Hipkens ( Portland Oblast subgroup) and Anne Tatgenhorst (Belfast and Ellsworth sub-groups). The original Choir was founded in 1998 under the direction of Kirsten Stockman and only included women. (They admitted males to the group around 2014). Over the years they were also directed by Orlina Boteva and notably by Elitsa Stoineva from Bulgaria, a seven-time Gold Medal winner of the annual singing competition in Sofia Bulgaria. If you are familiar with the "Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria" recordings you will recognize the style. We have a historical YouTube playlist showing past performances going back to the beginning.
In January 2023 the Choir decided to organize a fundraiser for Save The Children. We put out a call for singers and received interest from different parts of the state. We organized into three subgroups - Ellsworth, Belfast and Portland, totalling about fifty singers. We also partnered with The Huddled Masses Orchestra for instrumental backup. We then developed a program of all-Ukrainian-Language choral folk songs, working intensely on pronunciation. There are ample videos and links to be found on the FaceBook page for the Maine Balkan Choir, all recorded on May 21st.
We are always inviting new singers to join us.
For summer and fall 2023 we would enjoy collaborating with host organizations around the state to present our Ukrainian music. We can not guarantee that the full Choir with all fifty singers can appear but we will send a substantial subset depending on the date.