ZA VAS OT NAS - Martenitsa & MARA! - Album launch

Newcastle’s jazz & world music buffs will remember the mighty sound of the MARA! Big Band at the Harold Lobb Auditorium in November 2024, presented by NIMA. On year on, dual ARIA winning world/jazz quintet MARA! will return to Newcastle, this time they will be joined by the Martenitsa Choir (directed by Mara & Llew Kiek) to launch their long-awaited album ‘Za Vas Ot Nas’ (For You From Us) in an intimate Sunday afternoon concert at Hamilton Uniting Church.

The album celebrates 30 years of performing, recording and touring together as a combined ensemble, and features previously unreleased recordings of compositions and arrangements written especially for them by MARA! Band members and colleagues.

Fronting the choir will be Martenitsa’s extraordinary soloist Silvia Entcheva (Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, MARA! Big Band, Doch Gypsy Orchestra), along with MARA! band’s Sandy Evans, Paul Cutlan, Lloyd Swanton, Llew Kiek and, of course, Mara.

The repertoire includes works by Sandy Evans, Paul Cutlan, Laura Bishop and Llew & Mara Kiek. Two stunning works by Sandy Evans, Sъlzata na Klouna (Teardrop of a Clown) and Evkaliptov Sъn (Eucalyptus Dream) feature profoundly introspective lyrics by Bulgarian Australian poet Marcia Malinova-Anthony, and a third, Peperuda I Gъsenitsa (Butterfly and Caterpillar) showcases a delightfully playful poem by Silvia Entcheva. Her gently reflective poem Sbъdna Se (It Came True) is beautifully expressed in a lyrical miniature by Paul Cutlan.