Sample Song
Mara
Biography
Mara! began life in Australia in 1982 as "Tansey’s Fancy", playing Celtic and Early music, and performing countless arts centre, festival and campus gigs, with more than 200 concerts in 1983 alone. Band members included Mara, Llew, Doug Kelly, Adrian Coleridge, Davoud Tabrizi, Linsey Pollack, Andrew De Teliga and Kim Sanders, and many migrant musician guests. Tansey’s evolved into one of the seminal "multicultural music" groups in Australia, and in 1983-4 were support act for major tours around Australia by Donovan, Pentangle, Steeleye Span, Max Boyce and the Furies.
Tanseys Fancy toured to Europe in 1984 with Mara, Llew, Jim Denley and Mike Haughton. With guests Paul Miller on bagpipes and Danny Thompson (from Pentangle & Donovan) on bass, "Images" was recorded at Topic Records in London, and the group changed its name to "Mara!". Danny performed and toured with Mara! in Europe and Australia for the next 4 years, recording "On the Edge" in London in 1987.
As Danny’s performing commitments prevented him touring Australia in 1987, Steve Elphick joined the band for the Alice Springs National Folk Festival. He has remained Mara!’s bass player since.
By 1990, Jim and Mike had both migrated to Europe, and Sandy Evans and Tony Gorman joined Mara!. Numerous Australian and international tours and work with Musica Viva in Schools continued and by 1995 the albums "Don’t Even Think", "Ruino Vino" and "Sezoni" had been produced.
Sandy won a Keating award in 1996, and decided to focus on her own projects, and Tony retired from Mara! due to health problems in 1997. Sandy was briefly replaced by violinist Veren Grigorov , but on Tony’s retirement, the current lineup of Paul Cutlan and Andrew Robson began, and continues to today.
Mara! has performed at most major venues in Australia from the Perth Concert Hall to Sydney Opera House, Victorian Arts Centre to Brisbane Festival Hall, Adelaide Festival Theatre to Darwin Entertainment Centre, Ayers Rock Resort to Canberra Theatre. Major festivals have included WOMADELAIDE, Pt. Fairy, Woodford, Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, National Folk Festival (Canberra, Alice Springs), Perth Festival, Brisbane Energex Festival and Melbourne’s Moomba.
Among the many regional festivals at which Mara! has appeared are Fairbridge Folk Festival, Mount Beauty Music Muster, Lismore Folk Festival, Blue Mountains Folk Festival, Cygnet Folk Festival and Bellingen Global Carnival.
Mara! have performed at major cultural events such as the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting and the Olympic Arts Festival.
The breadth of Mara!’s regional touring at arts centres, clubs, amphitheatres, galleries, botanic gardens and pubs has widened over the years, stretching from Bateman’s Bay Botanic Gardens (NSW) to Kuranda Amphitheatre (Qld), Hamilton Arts Centre (Vic) to Broome Pearlers’ Park (WA), Quorn School of Arts (SA) to Palmerston Shopping Centre (NT), Ceduna Arts Centre (SA) to Bruce Rock Amphitheatre (WA).......
Mara! have recorded and broadcast for many ABC and SBS programmes.
Mara! has received tour funding in Australia from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres, the South Australian Country Arts Trust, New South Wales Ministry for the Arts, Playing Australia, SOCOG Reaching the World, WA Healthways, Northern Territory Arts Council, Musica Viva’s Countrywide and International Programs, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Indirect funding sources include Arts/City Councils, education authorities and corporations.
Since 1988 Mara! has performed very widely in Australian schools for Musica Viva, and launched MVIS in the Northern Territory in 1997 and in South Australia in 1996. In 1999, Mara toured "Across the Top" for Musica Viva, performing in many schools and regional arts centres from Port Headland to Rockhampton.
Biography thanks to www.maramusic.com.au.
