Profile: Del-Bourree Bach

Del-Bourree Bach

In due course, Del graduated from high school and continued his education at the University of Hartford’s Schools of Art and Music.

“I studied painting and voice,” he said. “I went on to have a career singing, as a bass – operas and operettas. I was a soloist.”

Del had what is considered the ultimate experience for a singer – a show at Carnegie Hall as a soloist.

“I was standing there, in front of a 70-piece orchestra,” he said. “When I was singing, I was singing, but during every break, I just couldn’t believe what was happening. It was almost surreal.”

He met his wife, Kristen, performing The Pirates of Penzance with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players.

“We were on the road in Lowell, Mass.,” Del said. “I was playing the Pirate King, and she was in the chorus.”

The couple were friends for over a year before they started dating.

“Only we really didn’t date,” said Del. “We were together on the road so much that we just spent a lot of time together.”

He sang for 20 years, until his retirement in 2003.

“I didn’t like the constant traveling,” Del said. “So I returned to my first love, painting. I have control over what I am doing every step of the way painting. I had some experience as an illustrator, working with textbook companies and doing editorial and political art for newspapers, but what I really love is painting.”

Del discovered Boca Grande when he was, in turn, discovered by Barb and Jack Hughes.

“I was at a show in Chatham, Mass., and they were getting ready to open the gallery,” he said. “Jack came by, looking for artists that they might be interested in showing, and he liked my work.”

After 30 years in New York City, he retired from the stage and Del and Kristen moved to Mystic, Conn.

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