Mariam Wallentin is a performer, musician and composer with roots in improvisation and avant garde, contemporary and alternative pop music. She studied at Skurups Folkhögskola and at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg.
Mariam is one half of the percussion and vocals duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums and a creator and composer in the Fire! Orchestra free jazz ensemble. In 2013, Wallentin started her solo alias, Mariam The Believer, a more pop-oriented project featuring her uncompromising musical approach. Since going freelance in 2007, she has toured internationally with her own projects and with bands such as Deerhof and Konono no 1, Icelandic and Australian choirs, international symphony orchestras and ensembles. She sang to Björk in the Polar Music Prize and took the principal role in a German-Icelandic experimental opera by Ben Frost. Mariam has won the Sveriges Radio jazz award and the Manifestpris award, been a Grammis nominee and received a cultural grant from the Sten A Olsson Foundation. She has performed at the Orion Theatre and the Royal Dramatic Theatre as an actor and musician, released albums under the ECM label with Anders Jormin and composed various themes for TV series including an epic sci-drama by Ridley Scott. Mariam is a bonus member of The Skull Defekts, has worked with Damien Rice and Feist, performed a song cycle spcially composed by Daniel Bjarnason and appeared as a guest artist on Leonard Cohen’s latest album.