Mara Kiek
Mara Kiek sings the close intervals and open-throated force of Bulgarian traditional song, drives it on frame drum and tapan, and arranges village horo, ballad and dance scores that stay fierce, precise and bodily alive.
She formed the Martenitsa Choir to master that style unaccompanied: Pirin suites, lively horo numbers and lyrical ballads sung with drones, tight harmony and gusto that can knock a room sideways. On Songs With Mara she is voice, music director and arranger, drawing on Philip Koutev and other Bulgarian choral figures while slipping in spare originals with Llew Kiek for Meryl Tankard’s dance theatre. The same ear for Balkan pulse turns up when she and Llew fuse The Cheshire Rounds with an 11/8 Bulgarian rhythm before a bush ballad, and when her tapan underpins Paul Cutlan’s outback-inspired chamber writing. Whether leading a choir, scoring for the stage or sitting inside a gamba ensemble, the work keeps folk material sharp rather than museum-still.
Mara Kiek is featured on the following titles
Spinning Forth
The title points to music still to come. The programme gathers French baroque viola da gamba repertoire with Swedish roots and newly commissioned Australian works, spinning forth in fresh directions.
Mara Kiek also appears on
Lady Sings the Viol
The concept behind Lady Sings the Viol was a CD of “covers”: five singers, alone and together, take songs from 1300 to the present, from Piaf and Schubert to John Paul Jones and Elena Kats-Chernin.