She is the daughter of fiddler/composer Jay Ungar and singer Lyn Hardy[1] and a graduate of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Her song Four Blue Walls, inspired by the play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley was recorded by Canadian band The Duhks, on their eponymous 2005 album produced by Béla Fleck and Gary Paczosa.

The couple produce a bi-annual music festival at the Ashokan Center called The Hoot[2][3] which they launched in 2013.

Ungar and Merenda perform as the duo Mike + Ruthy and as founding members of the folk-rock band The Mammals.

From 2005 to 2009 Ungar also recorded and performed in the trio Sometymes Why (2005–2009) with Kristin Andreassen of Uncle Earl and Aoife O'Donovan of Crooked Still.