From ballads to Bach, storytelling is at the heart of Baltimore based singer/multi-instrumentalist Mara Yaffee’s musicmaking. Living in many musical worlds, Mara searches for the connections across genres and time periods that speak to our shared humanity. As a solo artist, Mara is particularly captivated by popular music over the ages, drawing repertoire from broadsides, field recordings, and published song collections, as well as recordings from the folk revival of the midcentury. Accompanying herself on various instruments including autoharp and guitar, Mara writes her own songs and performs them alongside traditional and historical popular music, thinning the veil that separates our world from the past and reinforcing the bonds we share with all people that transcend time and place. In addition to playing intimate venues and house shows, Mara has performed at many festivals, including the Takoma Park Folk Festival, the Sidewalk Antifolk Festival, the 4th River Music Festival, and Porch Stomp Music Festival, and has appeared numerous times as a guest artist on Takoma Park Radio’s “Ballads in the Morning.”

Outside of folk music, Mara is a dynamic soprano and actress, performing diverse repertoire from songs of the Medieval era to premieres of new works. She has portrayed a wide array of characters in operas with the internationally acclaimed Boston Early Music Festival, INSeries Opera, and Telltale Opera Theater, among others. Mara has appeared as a soloist with Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Dualis, and the Choir of Grace & St. Peter’s, and her work in Renaissance chamber music has been featured on the Secret Garden Concerts at The Rectory series by Classical Movements, Early Music America’s Young Performers Festival at the Bloomington Early Music Festival, and Conciertos de la Villa Santo Domingo. 

Mara holds degrees in Voice and Historical Performance from Carnegie Mellon University and Peabody Conservatory. When not performing, Mara can be found coaching historical diction for the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble and leading the choir she founded, Shir HaLev.