Mara Kiek (M.App.Sc.) is a leading Australian expert on Bulgarian traditional music and the ‘Mysterious Bulgarian Voice’.

She is the founder and co-director of Sydney’s choir ‘Martenitsa’, which has specialised in this unique style of vocal music since 1990 and Mara regularly features as guest tutor/conductor for ensembles & choirs here and abroad (including Meryl Tankard’s ADT, Gondwana Voices, Sydney Children’s Choir, Sing NSW, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir, Malka Sestra, Coro Polifonico Soriano nel Cimino in Italy, Liutenitsa in Berlin) to assist in their explorations of this vocal tradition.

Mara has been studying the Bulgarian voice since the early 1980s, including completion of the Course for Directors of Folk Ensembles in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 1988/9 and gaining a Masters by Research into Characteristics of the Bulgarian Singing Voice from Sydney University’s Conservatorium of Music in 2008.

Since 2016, Mara and Bulgarian soloist Silvia Entcheva have been running the Bulgarian Ensemble course for undergraduates at the School of Arts & Media, UNSW (2^nd Semester only) and in 2017 Mara began giving vocal workshops on Balkan Music for the Open Academy of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Apart from Bulgarian and Balkan music, Mara has specialised in the art of ‘the Voice as an Instrument’, focusing on vocal health and understanding of the possibilities for control of vocal tone based on the anatomy and physiology of the voice.

Mara Kiek offers private vocal coaching and tuition to experienced singers of traditional/folk/roots, contemporary, jazz and blues, who are keen to improve their tone, voice control and understanding of safe vocal practices, particularly for styles of music requiring high intensity voice use.

For more information contact Mara Music:

PO Box 564 Springwood NSW 2777

mara@maramusic.com.au

02 4751 4910

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