Marc Perez is a west coast based transdisciplinary creator/artist, curator and organization leader whose work is concerned with freedom of agency, access, & improvisation.
Words, how we receive them, & the affects that come from words influences much of Marc’s practice.
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 focus on three core areas that often intersect. 1)accessibility 2)improvisation 3) unlearning western influenced pedagogy/ rewriting the history of music from a marginalized lens.
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.
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.