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Arts Division
Music Department
DMA Student in Music Composition
Graduate
Music Center
Music Center
Marc Perez is a composer, performer, improviser, artist, author, curator and organization leader whose work is concerned with freedom of agency, access, antidisciplinary arts & improvisation.
As a performer, they have been featured at various festivals such as High Desert Soundings, Woodstockhausen & Angel City Jazz Festival. As a composer, their works have been performed nationally and internationally in spaces ranging from universities and festivals to community resource centers and DIY spaces.
They are a heavy practitioner of text in combination with sound, often creating text scores, poems, installations & art relating to both sound and text.
Along with working as a curator for various shows, community focused events, and festivals throughout the year, They are also the co-founder and co-director of Sudden Somethings, an organization dedicated to the proliferation of activities, knowledge, research, and communal practices in improvisation across disciplines and non-disciplines.
They have published articles and prose with NYU’s Journal of Experimental Practice, Rented Tech Zine, Art Block Zine, and Phreaking Collective’s “Phreaking Magazine”. They also have an upcoming book release featuring a collection of text scores, to be printed by Thousands Press. They are currently a doctoral student in Music Composition at University of California, Santa Cruz.
MFA in Performance & Composition; With an emphasis in Trombone - California Institute of The Arts
BA in Global Jazz Studiesl With an emphasis in Trombone Performance - University of California, Los Angeles
Text Scores
Graphic Scores
Field Recordings
Jazz
Improvisation
Anti-Art
Fluxus
Interdisciplinary Work
Improvisation
Composition
Jazz
Brass
2025
Herb Alpert Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award
Ascap Foundation
New York, NY
2023
VCCA 50th Anniversary- Fund Awardee
Virginia Center For The Creative Arts
Amherst, VA
2025 To Tell x The Distance Between Us Is Too Far
(Exhibition University of California, Santa Barbara)
Selected Solo Performances (Commissions, Solo Premieres & Solo Improvisation Sets)
2026
“I Got Used To The Sirens ”
Composed & Performed by Marc Perez
June 25, 2026
Shibasaki Mod
Tokyo, JP
2024a
“Tap Water” : For Solo Percussion & Hydrophone”
Composed & Performed by Marc Perez
November 2, 2024
Myeondong, KR
2024b
“Songs & Sounds For Trombone”
Select Jazz Standards Re-interpreted by Marc Perez
October 30, 2024
Strange Fruit
Seoul, KR
2024c
“Marc Perez - Solo”
Performed at SOUNDPEDRO 2024
June 1, 2024
SOUNDPEDRO
San Pedro, CA
2024d
“Marc Perez - Solo”
February 24, 2024
South Willard Art Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
2024e
“Marc Perez - Solo”
February 1, 2024
COAXIAL
Los Angeles, CA
2023a
“Marc Perez - Solo”
Hosted by Departure From Music Venues
November 18, 2023
Los Angeles, CA
2023b
“Marc Perez - Solo”
Performed at the 2023 Aspen’s Composer Conference
August 8, 2023
Christ Episcopal Church
Aspen, CO
2023c
“Breathe” - For Solo Trombone” Composed by Pranav Nigam, Written for Marc Perez
February 26, 2023
California Institute of The Arts
Valencia, CA
CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE (* indicates participation as Composer, † indicates participation as Performing Artist, ⤉ indicates participation as presenter, ⤈ indicates paper presentation)
2026a
⤉ “Access in Playtime: Reframing and Restructuring Toys for Aurally Diverse Children Through Imagination, Symbolic Language & Conviviality”
Presented at The 2026 Neurodivergent Music Studies Conference
(Virtual)
2026b
* Recitation For The Scorned - For Solo Flute as part of “The Lost Flute Solos of “Blind Tom” Wiggins Imagined Through the Black Composer by Joshua Huan
Presented at The 2026 Society for American Music Conference
Richmond, VA
2023
⤈ “ALL -INCLUSIVE MUSIC; Overcoming Pedagogical Boundaries that are Placed Upon Composers, Performers & Improvisers from an Institutional Perspective”
Presented at The 2023 Aspen Composers’ Conference
Aspen, CO
(* indicates peer reviewed publications)
Books
2026
[Title Pending]
(Accepted For Publication)*
THOUSANDS Press
Pueblo, CO
Articles
2026
“The Erasure of My Voice in academia: Fighting Against Hegemony Over My
Vernacular, Culture and Identity” *
Journal of Experimental Practice (2): (pg. 31-35)
New York University
New York, NY
Other
2026a
“Numb Bodies, Stolen Spaces & Agonizing Minds; Growing Up In A Digitally Perverse And Grotesque Landscape And Trying To Reclaim My Digital Space *
Phreak Magazine (2): Can We Start Again? (pg. 25)
Phreaking Collective
London, UK
2026b
“An Ongoing Monthly Statistic”
(Music Score)
Art Block Zine (11): We The People
DSTL Arts
Los Angeles, CA
2026c
“The First Gig - Access & Community: Prose Detailing Relationship and Power Dynamics in Art Making Spaces” *
Rented Tech Zine (1): (pg. 18-19)
Rented Technology
Tampa, FL
2025
“Action Words on Democracy”; Text Focused Works Exploring Art Making and Freedom of Agency in Areas & Settings Where Both are Threatened.
Self- Published
(Supported by University of California, Santa Cruz)
Santa Cruz, CA
2026
“8(you)+eight(i)/quarterlife” (Marc Perez & Manuel J. Perez III)
Plus Timbre Records
https://plustimbre.bandcamp.com/album/8-you-eight-i-quarterlife
2023a
“Trauma Centers” (Manuel J. Perez III + Marc Perez)
Searching Records
https://searchingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/trauma-centers
2023b
“Sonic Biochem” (Marc Perez, Mason Moy & Michal Wroblowski)
Searching Records
https://searchingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-biochem
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