Arturo Márquez

With a father who was a professional mariachi violinist and a paternal grandfather who was a folk musician, it was only natural that Arturo Márquez eventually used the sounds he heard growing up in the concert music he would go on to compose. He was born in the town of Álamos in the Mexican state of Sonora in 1950. In 1962, his family moved to Los Angeles, where Márquez soon began studying violin and composing pieces based on the folkloric sounds of his homeland. He returned to Mexico at age 17, studying privately until 1970, when he attended the Mexican Music Conservatory. He later returned to the U.S., earning an MFA in composition at CalArts in 1990. His orchestral piece Danzón No. 2, based on the traditional Latin American dance form, has become one of the most widely recorded contemporary Mexican classical works. It was performed on a 2007 European and American tour by the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Nearly all of his music translates the sounds of his homeland into vibrant orchestral settings, including Fandango, premiered by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers with the LA Philharmonic in 2021.