Marco-Antonio Suárez Cifuentes

Composer Marco Antonio Suárez Cifuentes was born in Colombia. He works on  the idea of acoustical space as a main parameter in musical perception, formalisation  and language while using new technologies and developing electro-acoustic  interfaces and sound installations. Instrumentally, his music investigates the  relationship between musical gesture and the production of sound as he attempts to create a particular “gesture” environment for the performer. In Marco Suarez’s work the compositional process involves close interaction with musicians and integrates other art forms, such as architecture, dance, theatre, and video.

He studied music composition with Harold Vasquez, Michael Gatonska, Alba Triana and Guillermo Gaviria at the Javeriana University (Bogotá) where he earned a degree in Music Composition with honours in 2001. From 2002 to 2006 he studied music composition with M. Emmanuel Nunes and electro-acoustic music composition with M.  Luis Naón at CNSMDP, the « Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris », where he obtained the Diplôme de Formation Supérieur (DFS) in composition.

In 2005 he studied under  Michael Levinas,  Bryan Ferneyhough and  Jean-Luc Hervé in the « Voix Nouvelles » composition workshop of the Royaumont Foundation. From 2006 to 2009 he worked with Eric Daubresse, Robin Meier,   Mikhail Malt,  Emmanuel Jourdan,   Jean Lochard and   Yan Maresz in two IRCAM programs: « Cursus de Composition et d’informatique Musicale » and « Formation spécialisée en composition recherche et nouvelles tecnologies ». In 2009, within this context, the Ensemble Intercontemporain performed his project « Poetry for // dark - / dolls », for voice, ensemble and live electronics in two performance spaces.

His music has been performed in South America and Europe by prestigious groups such as: Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble le Balcon, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Multilaterale,  l'Itinéraire and  l’Instant Donnée (France) le Ensemble  Vortex,  Contrechamps (Switzerland), Contemporanea (Denmark),   Onyx (Mexico) and   Decibelio (Colombia).

Maxime Pascal, Pierre-Andre Valde, Pierre Schtrauch, Benjamin Attahir, Jean Michaêl Lavoie, Daniel Kawka, Zsolt Nagy, Kanako Abe, Guillaume Bourgogne, François Xavier Roth, Léo Warinsky and Rachid Safir have conducted Suárez Cifuentes’s music. He has collaborated  with top-level performers as Nicolas Crosse (Double Bass), Valérie Philippin, Beatrice Martinez (voice), Alain Billard (Clarinet), Pierre Strauch, Séverine Ballon, Delphine Biron (Cello), Hélène Colombotti, Gilles Durot (Percussion), Saori Furukawa (Violin), Christelle Sery, Cesar Quevedo and Sergio Restrepo  (Guitar).

He has been resident composer at CENART multi-media center in México in 2003, at Studio MIA in 2006, at La Muse en Circuit in 2008, 2012 and 2016, at GRAME in 2009-2010, at GMEM in 2015 and at ArtZOYD in 2010. IRCAM,  GRAME, the French Ministry of Culture,  SACEM, the Ensemble Multilatérale, the Ensemble le Balcon, the Ensemble Vortex, the Colombian Ministry of Culture, the Royaumont Foundation, the Fondation Carolina Oramas and the Foundation Mazda have commissioned Marco Suarez Cifuentes’s music.

From 2008 to 2009 he worked with Myriam Gourfink as Referent Composer  of  « Transforme », a dance training program of the Royaumont Foundation. With the French choreographer Clémence Coconnier he worked on the choreographic project “Plis”.

In 2010 he was appointed by the IMTR research team at IRCAM to compose for the project MUBU along with M. Norbert Schnell; here his investigations are centred on the development and integration of compositional control methods for real time analysis and synthesis interfaces based on concatenation and granular synthesis. In 2012 he premiered his first opera « L'enfer musical d'Alejandra Pizarnik », for three voices, three ensembles and live électronics commissioned by the ensemble LeBalcon.

In 2012 Marco Suarez is invited to the Muse en Circuit Studios to work on “Kärlek Splittring II” for cello and electronics, and "Libelulle" a new piece for hybrid bass clarinet solo and ensemble in collaboration with Alain Billard. He has recently premiered "Monologue pour une araignée mécanique" for one musician playing an electroacoustic string based architecture in collaboration with Nieto and Nicolas Crosse, "Moi, comme une autre", for hybride percussions and vidéo in collaboration with Lucie Antunes and "Hétérochronies", concerto for two amplified voices, XAMP accordion and large orchestra.

Marco Suarez teached composition at Laval and Romainvilles Conservatory  between 2008 and 2016, he’s current invited profesor of the Javriana’s University composition program at Bogota.

He had continued his artistic researches within the frame of the program SACRe- PSL (Paris Sciences et lettres) for which   he prepared his doctorate in arts and creation at CNSMDP under the guidance of M.  Fréderic Bevilacqua, Luis Naon and Stefano Gervasoni. He has recently obtained  his practice based PHD on March 2017.

Actually he works on a new opera on Saint Jean's Apocalypse with Nieto and collaborates with Jeanne Maisonhaute and the XAMP duo on two musical projects.