Marco Pereira

by Alvaro Neder Marco Pereira is an internationally renowned Brazilian composer, guitarist, and university professor. His compositional work and playing -- strongly influenced by Brazilian, Latin American, and jazz music -- have been awarded in important international contests such as Spain's Concurso Andrés Segóvia in Palma de Mallorca and Concurso Francisco Tárrega in Valencia. In 1993, he won the Sharp prize for Best Popular Music Arranger for his work on Gal Costa's Gal. In the next year, he received two Sharp prizes (Best Soloist and Best Instrumental Album) for his own album Bons Encontros (a duet with pianist Cristóvão Bastos). He has also performed and recorded with many top popular Brazilian singers/composers like Tom Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Edu Lobo, Paulinho da Viola, Gilberto Gil, and Wagner Tiso. Pereira studied with classical guitar master Isaías Sávio while still in São Paulo. Moving to France, he presented a master's thesis about Villa-Lobos' music to the department of Musicology of the Université Musicale Internationale de Paris/Sorbonne. In the next five years while living in France, Pereira performed in Germany, the United States, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Canada, and Spain. Back in Brazil, he organized courses on violão (classical guitar) and functional harmony at the University of Brasília, and recorded two albums (Violão Popular Brasileiro Contemporâneo and Círculo das Cordas) that yielded him an invitation to perform at the Town Hall (New York) in 1988. He performed in the Brasil em Caracas festival (Venezuela) in 1995 and 1996 (the latter year with Paulo Moura). Also in 1996, he performed with success in the XXème Carrefour Mondiale de la Guitare (Martinica) with Baden Powell and Vicente Amigo. In 2000, he toured the U.S. with Ralph Towner in the International Guitar Night series.