Mara! Ensemble return to one of Sydney's best clubs, The Foundry, on Saturday June 16 2018. Located in Harris St Ultimo, the club has a great ambience, and excellent food and bar. Mara! play here each year, and we always have a great time at this intimate venue. Expect some old favourites, some new works and as always, Mara!'s trademark genre defining sound. Mara and Llew Kiek, Sandy Evans, Paul Cutlan and Lloyd Swanton have a long history of performances and touring together, and the interplay and empathy between these musicians is unique in world music in Australia.

The Marais Project: 'Spinning Forth" produced by Llew Kiek, CD of the week ABC Classic FM

A new CD by the Marais Project "Spinning Forth" was CD of the week on ABC Classic FM in January. The album takes its name from a new work by Paul Cutlan, longtime Mara! band member, and the CD was produced by Llew. Two of the most-played tracks have been arrangements by Llew and Mara "The Cheshire Rounds" and "Streets of Forbes". One of many glowing reviews can be found here. Watch an interview with the composers and Jenny Eriksson, director of the Marais Project, below under "this month's featured video".

Mara! and Martenitsa recording new album

Recording at Megaphon Studios and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Mara! and Martenitsa have nearly completed the bed tracks for their next CD. The works include pieces by composers Llew and Mara Kiek, Paul Cutlan, Laura Bishop and Sandy Evans with librettists Silvia Entcheva, Marcia Maria-Anthony and Stephan Kozuharov.

 

World Music Ensemble at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Llew Kiek is running this course again in term 3 2018. Enquiries are now open for the term starting July 2018. for more info on the course

 

Crossroads: work begins on new album

Mara and Llew worked with Padrig Sicard and Yann Cariou in Quimper and Concarneau in January 2017 on a new project for their group Crossroads. for more news

 

 

 

 

 

Mara! Electronic Press Kit here

Mara! International touring 2015

Mara! performed 2 major international tours: to Italy with our sister group Martenitsa Choir and the UK in July/August, and to Hong Kong in May International tours 2015

Tra Parole E Silenzio Mara! and Martenitsa's latest CD

Tra Parole e Silenzio is a celebration of life's most precious and enduring treasures - love, home, family and friends, so exquisitely expressed in the poignantly tender poems of Eduardo Di Giovanni and stunningly interpreted by Mara! Band composers and performers Paul Cutlan, Andrew Robson, Steve Elphick, Llew Kiek, Mara Kiek and Sandy Evans, in collaboration with Silvia Entcheva, Naomi Vaughan and the magnificent Martenitsa choir. More about Tra Parole e Silenzio. CD available from our online store.

from Froots (UK) Dec 2012

"The Sydney Morning Herald once referred to Mara! as "the Dom Perignon of (Australia's) World Music Bands", it was perhaps a touch premature, but this collaboration between the group and their Bulgarian-style choir certainly meets that appellation...an unqualified success with its feeling of fresh adventure, sumptuous singing and depth of musical experience."

Read Tra Parole CD review in "The Australian" of April 14, 2012