Mara is a composer and curator based in Eora Sydney. She plays the viola and collaborates with her laptop to create live performances and recorded pieces for film, dance, and gallery spaces. Her work is led by the shifts of perspective and interaction of rhythms and beings within environments. Mara's most recent album At Every Corner "is a testament to her deep connection to time, place and community, as well as her skill in transforming everyday sounds into immersive auditory constructs."
In 2019 she graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) and went on to attend LungA School (Seyðisfjörður, IS) in 2020. Since then she has curated three major exhibitions: Cycles (2021, Sheffer); Gathering Geographies (2022, Darren Knight Gallery); and Building the Palace (2023, Blindside). Mara hosts The Bridge on fbi.radio in Eora Sydney and is a resident on Fade Radio with her program Absorbed Terrain. She currently works with the Powerhouse Museum as an audio producer and researcher.
I acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation as the traditional owners of the land that I live and work on today. I pay my respect to their elders past and present and recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded.
upcoming
curatorial
ongoing Temporary Position with Zoe Baumgartner
2025 Fountain Chorus, 14 Vine St, Redfern
2023 Building the Palace, BLINDSIDE, Naarm Melbourne
[Exhibition Review by Eleanor McCooey]
2022 Fountain Chorus, COMA Gallery, Darlinghurst
2022 Gathering Geographies, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
2021 Cycles, Sheffer Gallery, Sydney
film score
2025 Now You See Me — Ningaloo's Nursery (dir. Alice Wesley-Smith)
2024 The Calcified Ear (dir. Veronica Charmont)
2024 To Become A Lion (dir. David Ma)
2023 FROM THE FLASH (dir. Olivia Costa)
2023 Now You See Me — Sharks and Rays (dir. Alice Wesley-Smith)
2022 How To Build A Forest (dir. Jenn Tran)
2021 The Formation of a Cloud (dir. Jenn Tran)
2021 White's Seahorse (dir. Alice Wesley-Smith)
2020 The Weather Diaries (dir. Kathy Drayton)
2019 Specular (dir. Veronica Charmont)
2019 Bunset Soulevard (dir. Veronica Charmont)
2018 Sensual Healing (dir. Amaya Lang)
2016 Parastas (dir. Marie-Stella McKinney) (Nominated for Best Composer at SFSFF)
dance score
2021 Remember what you heard when you weren't even listening — Arini Byng
2019 Of Space and Time — Angela Valdez
2018 Breathe — Angela Valdez
sound design
2024 Pre-Show Announcement for Phoenix Central Park
2024 A Living Instrument, short documentary (dir. Hyun Lee)
2023 Amali, short documentary (dir. Ruby Harris)
2023 Double Parallax, Exhibition, Meng-Yu Yan and Anna May Kirk, Mosman Art Gallery
2023 Blue Corridor, Sarah and Sebastion Campaign
2023 Future Fashion, Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum
2023 Powerhouse Museum Sonic Identity
2023 Aria, Sarah and Sebastion Campaign
2023 Latitudes: Sometimes To One Hundred; 151E; Window (dir. Subversus)
2022 Culinary Archive Podcast (Powerhouse Museum)
2022 Oscillations: Omar Musa — Radiesthesia, Podcast (Powerhouse Museum)
2021 A Stretch of the Imagination — Jack Hibberd, Theatre (dir. Andrew Signor)
scores
2022 Movements — performed by Ensemble Apex at Darren Knight Gallery
2021 Sing With Your Friends Over Zoom (via Temporary Position)
2021 attempting to stretch — for solo viola
2021 pulling moods — for solo viola
2021 heavy drone building — for viola, clarinet, and tape
2021 duet — for solo viola in the Villa Alba Museum
releases
2024 At Every Corner (LP - Pure Space)
2023 How To Build A Forest (OST)
2021 The Formation of a Cloud (OST - Music Company)
2021 Akin, with Land Systems (LP - Spirit Level)
2020 Stretching (Music Company – Vector Fields Vol. 2 Compilation)
2020 Feeling (Fluxx – Fluxx Vol. I Compilation)
2019 Slow Dance (EP)
2019 Live at Wylie's Baths – Alaska Orchestra (Live EP)
2017 Missing (LP)
2017 People (1974) ft. Frank (Single)
2017 Shift (Spirit Level – Kindred Spirits: Piano Day compilation)
2016 Liquid (LP)
2016 Exhaustion/Destruction (Single)
2014 Get Lost in the Night (LP)
browser-based installations
2021 Murmurs — HyperLocal, PACT
2020 Promised Files
2020 i can still hear the strong winds outside — AvantWhatever Festival
2020 LungA Sound Archive
publications
2022 Building the Palace (Curatorial Essay), Building the Palace, self-published — Audio Version
2022 Earthly Elements Through Our Bodies (Curatorial Essay), Gathering Geographies, self-published
2021 Journals — #1 #2 #3 — Bogong Centre For Sound Culture
2021 Floating Apart - Symbiotic Poems
2021 Infinite Rebirth / Immortality, No No No Mag No.1, No More Poetry
2020 Resting Between - Symbiotic Poems, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland
2020 First Gesture
2017 Pioneering Women of Electronic Sound Volume 1, self-published
2017 The Guide to Composers and Koalas Volume 2, self-published
2017 Liquid (lyrics from the album), self-published
2016 The Guide to Composers and Koalas Volumes 1, self-published
selected performances
2023 Strata Festival with Chris Abrahams, Phoenix Central Park
2022 De–Choiring: a workshop for new approaches to scoring, Temporary Position, Phoenix Central Park
2022 Art After Dark, The Cutaway, Sydney Bienalle
2021 Make It Up Club Online, Youtube / Melbourne
2021 Mono-Poly, Liquid Architecture, Collingwood Yards, Melbourne
2020 MERGE: Duet with the Villa Alba Museum, Melbourne
2018 / 2020 Ambient 1: Music For Airports. written by Brian Eno. Performed by Alaska Orchestra – VividLive / Digital Season, Sydney Opera House (viola, synthesiser, electronics, and vocals)
2018 – 2020 Alaska Orchestra Live Performances (viola, electronics, vocals, synthesiser, harmonium)
2014 – 2020 Lupa J live band (viola, electronics and vocals),
2017 – 2019 Improvised performances with Tilde Joy (viola and electronics)
2019 Candy live band (viola, bass guitar, keyboard)
2017 – 2018 Braille Face live band (viola)
2017 – 2019 The Overheads live band (viola, keyboard, guitar)
residencies
2025 Elektronmusikstudion EMS, Stockholm, Sweden
2025 VICC Composer in Residency Program, Visby, Sweden
2024 DESA Residency, Ubud, Indonesia
2023 Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan
2023 Bundanon — With Temporary Position, supported by Cement Fondu, Bundanon, Dharawal and Dhurga Land
2021 Bogong Centre for Sound Culture, Waveroo Land
2021 Church St Studios, Sydney, Gadigal Land
remixes
2019 To Be Found – The Overheads
2018 Dearest Friend – Hemm
2016 Numb – Lupa J
mixes
2025 Continuity, Retreat Radio
2025 what we find, Radio 80000
2024 Pretend Radio
2024 The Observatory
2024 Pure Space FM
2020 At Home (At Home), Music Company
2020 .wav Artefacts E5 on SkyLab Radio
interviews / press
2025 15 Questions
2024 Surfacing with Luke de Zilva, FBi Radio
2024 Frantic Items with Charlie Miller, Triple R
2024 Out of the Box with Kate Saap, FBi Radio
2022 Mara Schwerdtfeger's world of sound, The Music Show with Andrew Ford, ABC
2022 InScape 013: Nostalgic Listening w/ Mara Schwerdtfeger - Daniel George, OpenLab
2020 Working with Sound, Australian Audio Guide
2019 Interview on Double Bounce, Triple R
2017 Spirit Level Loves