Mara Helmuth is a composer of music which often involves the computer in performance and composition. Sound Collaborations, v.36 of the Consortium to Distribute Computer Music Series on Centaur Records includes mostly interactive compositions. Collaborations with percussionist-composer Allen Otte are heard on the Electronic Music Foundation compact disk Implements of Actuation, and tape work on Open Space CD 16. She is on the faculty of the College-Conservatory for Music, University of Cincinnati and director of its Center for Computer Music. She holds a D.M.A. from Columbia University, and previous degrees were from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her fixed format music includes Mellipse (1989,1995), Abandoned Lake in Maine (1997) and bugs and ice: A Question of Focus (2002). Her writings have appeared in the monographs Audible Traces and Analytical Methods of Electroacoustic Music, and in the Journal of New Music Research and Perspectives of New Music. Her software for composition and improvisation has involved granular synthesis, the RTcmix music programming language, user interfaces and Internet2. Recent work includes Where is my Voice, for fixed format audio, the Hidden Mountain (2007) and Staircase of Light (2003) interactive installations for the Sino-Nordic Performance Arts Space in Beijing, an Internet 2 application for improvisation: Soundmesh, and updates to StochGran, an RTcmix-based granular synthesis application. She is currently the ICMA president. She also plays the qin, a Chinese zither.