About the Founder

About Mar Mar Aye, the Founder

Mar Mar Aye was born into an artistic family in Myaung Mya, Irrawaddy Delta, Burma.

Trained by her musician parents, she started singing at the age of three and released her first record when she was eight.

She entered the national stage at the age of 13 with her second record:

Thet Tan Paw Hmar Kasar-mae (Let’s Play on the Rainbow).

From 1955 to 1997(when she left Burma), she was acclaimed as an accomplished artist and one of the leading classical musicians in Burma.

She served on the Burmese National Musical Council and held a number of prestigious posts at the Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS) and the Ministry of Information and Culture. Her portfolio includes

· 6000 songs (including movie soundtracks, independent records, cassettes and radio broadcasts)

· founding the Aye Singing Academy and the Aye Musical Enterprise

· three movies Mya Chu Than (The Sound of Emerald Bells, nominated for an Academy Award.), Thu Go Hma Chit De, and Mandarlee

· novels titled Tho Galay May May [Little Lamb May May] (1974) and Yin Phwint Kyi Par Thu Nge Chin [Open Your Heart, My Friend] (serialized in Ma Haythi magazine in 1990 in Burma, republished in the U.S. in 2004)

After moving to the U.S. in 1998, she began compiling music research documents. She has since visited the UK, Australia, and Japan to delight her fans living outside the country.

She can be heard discussing a variety of topics under the heading “Pyaw Pya Sa Ya Dwe Le Ta Bon Gyi Shi The De” [“I Still Have So Much to Tell You”] in London-based BBC’s Burmese program section.

She honored the participants of the Saffron Revolution (which erupted in Burma in October 2007), with the song “A-thae Nar Kabar Makyae” [“Heartache to last till the World’s Annihilation”].

When Burma’s military regime held a national referendum to legitimize its hold on power, she recorded the rallying song “Vote No!”

Recently, to raise awareness of the plight of the Nargis disaster survivors, she recorded “Help the Cyclone Victims” (May 2008).