Anna Dembska came to composing through her work in experimental theater and as a soprano and improvisor. Her music integrates disparate musical passions—polyphonic vocal music, singing traditions from Macedonia to Mongolia, improvisation and extended use of the voice, new music theater, and the voice as a musical and dramatic instrument.

Dembska has taught voice, musicianship, and performance technique for over 25 years, including at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Experimental Theater Wing, the Metropolitan Opera Guild's In-School Program and National Teacher Training, and Brooklyn College Conservatory Prep. Division. Her books, You've Got Rhythm: read music better by feeling the beat (Flying Leap Music, 2002), and Piano, Body and Soul (Flying Leap Music, 2006), both co-authored with pianist Joan Harkness, are bringing new repertoire, improvisation techniques, and sophisticated music skills to amateur and beginning musicians. She directs the Schoodic Summer Chorus, an unauditioned a capella community chorus in Winter Harbor, Maine. In July, 2002, she conducted the Chorus in the premiere of her cantata, The Bear, from a poem by Beatrix Gates, at the Schoodic Arts Festival at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor.