Arts Division
Graduate Student
Graduate
Music Center
Music Center
Marc Perez is a west coast based composer, performer, improviser, artist, author, curator and organization leader whose work is concerned with freedom of agency, interdisciplinary arts & improvisation. As a performer, marc has performed and collaborated with a wide array of improvisers across the US, including Devin Daniels, Andrew Weathers, Vinny Golia, William Roper, Matt Crane, Dan Clucas, Lucy Liu, The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, You, Me & The Whales, Angel Lin & Corey Fogel. Marc has performed at various festivals such as High Desert Soundings, Some Things From Nothing Ad-hoc Improv Festival & Angel City Jazz Festival. Marc has a multitude of ongoing groups he has created, including a brass trio (The Lip-Reeds), an improv quartet (Filler Words) & and a large jazz ensemble (The Tapestry).
As a composer, his compositions span solo, chamber ensemble, and acousmatic formats, incorporating a wide range of acoustic instrumentation combined with open/varying settings & form. Marc is often inspired by non traditional music notation, minimalism, as well as experimentation involving the spaces where his works are performed, creating the unapologetically true to self sounds he music is associated with. Marc's work has been played across the US, in community spaces as well as university settings; as well as internationally in Korea, Thailand & the UK. Marc is also one of the recipients for the 2025 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Awards.
As an artist Marc’s works have been presented in multiple formats in both community settings and institutional settings such as “The Locker Residency" hosted by University of California, Santa Barbara.
Marc is a heavy practitioner of text in combination with music, often creating text scores, poems, installations & art relating to both sound and text.
Along with curating shows/events throughout the typical year, Marc is the co-founder and co-director of SuddenSomethings, an organization dedicated to the proliferation of activities, knowledge, research, and communal practices in improvisation across disciplines and non-disciplines. This includes:
Curating and hosting benefit concerts to support artists in our community affected by drastic life changes (such as the 2025 LA fires)
Curating pop up shows with local creative communities
Hosting a bi-annual, ad hoc festival, Some Things From Nothing, with improvised logistics and performance formats for 20+ improvisers.
Marc is also the founder and site-runner for SocalImproviser, a database aimed at providing knowledge and resources such as artist profiles, show info, venue info & more to anyone who considers their work improvisation focused as far north as Santa Barbara County and as South as San Diego County.
Marc received his BA in Global Jazz Studies at UCLA, his MFA in Performance & Composition at California Institute of the Arts & is currently pursuing his DMA in Music Composition at UCSC. His teachers & mentors include various influential composers & performers such as Luciana Souza, Arturo O’Farrill, Johnathan Pinson, Jon Hatamiya, Vardan Ovespian, David Rosenboom, Vinny Golia, Tim Feeney, Carolyn Chen & Mattie Barbier.
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
Field Recording
Jazz
2026 “Locker Residency" at University of California, Santa Barbara
Selected Recipient
2025 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award
Selected Recipient
2024 Seoul Korea’s Annual Toy Piano New Music Festival
Selected Composer
2023 ICIT INTACT New Music Festival
Selected Finalist
2023 VCCA 50th Anniversary Fund Awardee
Selected Recipient - did not accept
2023 Unsigned Only
Semi-Finalist in Jazz Category
2022 Unsigned Only
Semi-Finalist in Jazz and Instrumental Categories
2021 Department of Music Award
Awarded by Herb Alpert School of Music at University of California, Los Angeles
2021 Foundation Jazz Scholarship
Awarded by Herb Alpert School of Music at University of California, Los Angeles
2020 Herb Alpert Foundation Jazz Scholarship
Awarded at University of California, Los Angeles
2019 Herb Alpert Foundation Jazz Scholarship
Awarded at University of California, Los Angeles
Major Festivals
2026 Drongo Fest
Featured Artist
2025 Sudden Somethings Presents: Some Things From Nothing Ad Hoc Festival Hosted by NYU
Co-Curator/Performer
2025 Sudden Somethings Presents: A Day For Us Fire Relief Festival
Co-Curator
2025 Sudden Somethings Presents: Some Things From Nothing Ad Hoc Festival at RASP
Co-Curator/Performer
2024 Angel City Jazz Fest
Featured Artist
2024 EDME NEW MUSICAL FESTIVAL
Featured Composer
2024 Toy Music Festival in Seoul Korea
Selected Composer
2024 SOUNDPEDRO CHARIVARI
Featured Artist
2023 IntAct International Composition Institute of Thailand
Selected Composer
2023 SOUNDPEDRO A.C.E
Featured Soundscape Artist
2023 SOUNDPEDRO TRYST
Featured Artist
2023 EDME NEW MUSICAL FESTIVAL
Featured Composer
2023 High Desert Soundings 2023
Featured Artist
2023 Nief-Norf Summer Festival
Participant in both Performer & Composer categories
2023 SOUNDPEDRO Summer Festival
Featured Soundscape Artist
2023 Marc Perez, “ALL - INCLUSIVE MUSIC; Overcoming Pedagogical Boundaries that are Placed Upon Composers, Performers & Improvisers from an Institutional Perspective” (A Personal Analysis Utilized for Academic Presentation, Education & Reform.)
Submitted for presentation at the 2023 Aspen Composers’ Conference
2025 Marc Perez - "Action Words on Democracy" (Self Published Collection of Text Scores)
