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 with honours.
In 2005 he studied under Michael Levinas, Bryan Ferneyhough and Jean-Luc Hervé in the « Voix Nouvelles » composition workshop sponsored by 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 groups such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, the Ensemble Multilaterale, the Ensemble le Balcon, l'Itinéraire l’Instant Donnée (France) le Ensemble Vortex, Contrechamps (Switzerland), Contemporanea (Denmark), Onyx (Mexico) and Decibelio (Colombia).
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, Delphine Biron (Cello), Hélène Colombotti, Gilles Durot (Percussion), Saori Furukawa (Violin), Christelle Sery, Cesar Quevedo and Sergio Restrepo (Guitar).
He was resident composer at CENART multi-media center in México in 2003, at Studio MIA in 2006, at La Muse en Circuit in 2008, at GRAME in 2009-2010 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, and the Royaumont Foundation have commissioned Marco Suarez Cifuentes’s music.
From 2008 to 2009 he worked with Myriam Gourfink as Referent Composer in the production of « Transforme », a dance project sponsored by the Royaumont Foundation.
Marco Suarez Cifuentes is currently artistic advisor and assistant director in France for the “Festival Academia Internacional de Música Contemporáneo” of Bogotá; he is one of the main founders of Babelscores®, a project devoted to the promotion and diffusion of contemporary music around the world. With the French choreographer Clémence Coconnier he is currently working on the multimedia 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. He is currently working on « I/(I)/I Femmes », a multi-media opera commissioned by the ensemble LeBalcon, “Kärlek Splittring” for cello and electronics, and a new piece for bass clarinet solo and ensemble in collaboration with Alain Billard and the Ensemble Multilatérale.