Based in picturesque Hobart, Tasmania, Meyers & McNamara are an energetic and joyfully unrestrained duo. Marrying classical folkloric melodies with achingly intricate arrangements, they have delighted audiences from some of Europe's liveliest bars and music festivals to the wettest, coldest and darkest street corners.
Klezmer, Balkan, and pan-European music together with original compositions and experimental electronics. This project brings together Rachel and Dave's shared love of melodic lyricism, minimalism, experimentation, and improvisation.
Rachel Meyers
Tasmanian musician, composer and musicologist Rachel Meyers' career spans world, folk, experimental, and early music spheres, and has developed within the fields of performance, academia, community cultural development and music education. She completed a Bachelor of Music at the University of Melbourne, and studied violin under the tutelage of Leonid Zeyde, and music composition with Dr Stuart Greenbaum.
As a multi-instrumentalist, Rachel has recorded several albums and toured nationally with outfits including Van Diemen’s Fiddles and The Tinderbox Collective; and internationally with chamber-folk duo Meyers & McNamara. She has composed, arranged, and collaborated on original music and sound art for her various ensembles for over 10 years, and received two private commissions in 2023. Her compositions have been played at Next Wave Festival, Mona Foma, and private events.
Rachel has a MMus in musicology, has worked as an early career researcher on an ARC-funded project in Spain, worked as a research assistant for the University of Melbourne for three years, and is currently undertaking a PhD in ecological experimental music and sound art. Rachel has worked in schools as a Teaching Artist with The Songroom, and taught instrumental music for over fifteen years.
Rachel is currently in receipt of a prestigious Australian Postgraduate Stipend for Higher Research Degrees and has previously held a Tasmanian Research Stipend, and has successfully received funding for a variety of professional musical projects from the Tasmanian Government and Ausco.
She is deeply passionate about working with stories of place, identity, and personal connection, and using art as a tool for real, tangible community change.
Dave McNamara
Dave McNamara is a musician and educator from Hobart. Since graduating from the University of Melbourne with a BMusic/BTeaching double degree, he has performed as a soloist and in a wide range of ensembles and performance situations on piano, accordion, trumpet, percussion, guitar and vocals. Dave has performed at many of the major folk and arts festivals around the country, including Maldon, Cygnet, Illawarra, Newstead, and National Folk Festivals, as well as collaborating on projects for major Tasmanian festivals 10 Days on the Island and The Unconformity (formerly known as Queenstown Arts and Heritage Festival). Dave has composed and arranged many songs and instrumental pieces for bands, school ensembles and radio commercials. As an educator, he has taught hundreds of students in both instrumental and classroom settings, as well as directing choirs, bands and orchestras. Dave is currently Head of Department (The Arts) at Mount Carmel College in Sandy Bay.