Meet Marc Perez

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marc Perez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marc below.

Marc, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I found my purpose of creating stories and portraying relatable narratives through my music through community engagement, both as a student and as a teacher. I feel music comes from the community, or people in general, first and foremost. By refocusing music on people rather than an institution, we can see the beauty and identity of each story.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I focus my own compositions on making music notation more accessible without making the quality of music diminish. I feel more often than not music nowadays forgets about the oral tradition and community that is involved in music. Therefore, I make all information as concise as possible. This might be through actual words, or through graphic notation, or gestural music notations. Much of my music also is influenced by Jazz and improvisation in general.
In regard to projects, I am excited about a large ensemble album I have in the works as well as a jazz quintet album coming out in the near future.
I also look forward to educating the community more and rebuilding bridges for people who feel a disconnect with music.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I feel patience, understanding and awareness is extremely important in my field and what I do in general. You must be patient with others if they are struggling as well as yourself if you are frustrated. You must be understanding to the situation you are in as an artist or someone else’s situation. Lastly, the awareness you need to have in music is so important. Intent is everything.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I am a firm believer in focusing on certain areas rather than spreading yourself too thin. I see so many musicians try to be a jack of all trades and end up being a master of none. We live in an environment that is extremely competitive whether we like it or not. With that in mind, I feel individuality and being exceptional at one thing will stick out more than being decent at ten things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.marcperezmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapmusiq
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mapmusiq
• Other: https://marcperez.bandcamp.com