Mercedes Zavala was born in Madrid 1963. She studied Piano and Composition at the Madrid Music Conservatoire, subjects she studied further with various teachers, especially in the fields of performance of 20th century piano music, teaching and composition. She has been a pupil of Malcolm Singer (Guildhall School teacher and headmaster of Yehudi Menuhin School at London), a main figure in her development like composer.

Her works has been played first in England and then in the rest of Europe: Wien (1995: premiere of “Cómo es” y del “Diario (íntimo) de Sara-Clarabella Max), France (2001: Aujourd`Hui Musiques at Perpignan) and Germany (2002: Contemporary Spanish Music in Europe). In 1995 The Western Illinois University (USA) comissioned to her a work for the Hispanic Culture Festival, inviting her to give some lectures and recitals where he premiered her own works and others of her alter-ego Sara-Clarabella Max.

In Spain her work starts to be seriously recognized since 1999 (Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea de Alicante, Ministry of Culture commission), being played in the more significant musical events of Contemporary Music since then like the XIX Festival de Música del Siglo XX (Bilbao 1999), Festival Internacional de Música Electroacústica (Madrid 2001), Encuentro de Composición INJUVE (invited composer and comission for “La apoteosis nocturna de Andoar”, Mollina-CBA de Madrid 2001), VII ciclo de Música Contemporánea Orquesta Ciudad de Málaga (2001), “Música Hoy”: la nueva generación (Madrid, 2003), Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada (2003), Festival de Otoño (Madrid, 2003), Aula de Reestrenos de la Fundación Juan March (2004), Ciclo de Música Contemporánea de Tres Cantos (2004–2005)… El océano sin nombre, a score for Symphonic Orchestra, was premiered at Madrid (Auditorio Nacional, OSMUM, 27 de Marzo 2004). Her last comission (CDMC, Ministry of culture) El Libro de la Almohada, a concert for Clarinet and Large Ensemble written for José Luis Estellés and TaimaGranada, was premiered at Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea de Alicante 2005. Between her last creations some vocal works can be remarked, like the Song Cycle for Sopran and Piano, La Sed, or the stage work Bestiarium. The influence of the Literature and Poetry it is one of the main characteristics of her musical thinking.

Beyond Mercedes Zavala dedication to Composition are important activities in teaching and research. In 1990 he became Harmony Teacher at Madrid Conservatory, where today she stays on teaching. In this year too she starts to work at Grupo Secuencia, playing piano and exploring theatrical and sociological aspects of musical performance. She has made researches on African Music, travelling to Senegal in 1996 to study percussion with Professor N’Diaye (Louga, Cercle de la Jeunesse). In 1997 she graduated in Philosophy, studying after a postgraduate related to Aesthetics. She has spent a lot of time and efforts to the study and diffusion of historical repertory of women composers. She belongs since 2002 to the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas, at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Institute for Feminist Research), being active in diffusion of women music.