Joshua Marquez (b. 1990) is a Filipino-American composer and activist whose award-winning music explores the liminal space between tone and noise as a means to investigate the complexities and duality of Asian American identity. Searing a sonic imprint of cultural identity, his tranquil investigations of the noise spectrum represent the internal conflicts of multiculturalism and the struggles of alienation and assimilation through the fusion and fission of disparate timbres. Hailed as "cutting-edge" (The Gazette), "haunting" (The Daily Iowan), and "creepy" (Fanfare Magazine), Marquez's polemic deconstruction of sound is consumed by ever-evolving rituals of disintegrated perspectives from a postcolonial lens.
Marquez's music has been performed and recorded, internationally, by ensembles and musicians such as the JACK Quartet, Brno Philharmonic, Carmine Marcello Rizzi (violin), Iwona Glinka (flute), Akropolis Reed Quintet, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, University of Iowa Center for New Music, Gate City Camerata, Quintet Sirocco, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia.
His work has earned prizes and awards such as a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts Residency Fellowship, a Brush Creek Artist Residency, a Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts Residency, a 2016 Sayat Nova International Composition Competition Prize, a 2013 Stony Brook Premieres! First Prize, a North Carolina Arts Grant, an Iowa Social Justice Grant, and an Iowa Arts Across Borders Grant in addition to other honors.
Recent performances include the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYC), the National Student Electronic Music Event (GA), Birmingham New Music Festival (AL), Brave New Works (CA), Fulcrum Point New Music (IL), SCI Concerts, Stony Brook Premieres! (NYC), Circuit Bridges (NYC), John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium (NM), An Art Artistry (GR), and the International Ferienkruse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (DE) in venues such as Symphony Space (NYC), Abron Arts Center (NYC), the Englert Theatre (IA), Open House Chicago (IL), Detroit Opera House (MI), Weatherspoon Art Museum (NC), the Canada International Film Festival, and the Utopia Film Festival (MD), among others.
Marquez's research was featured at the 2015 Humpback Whale World Congress in Sainte-Marie, Madagascar. Recordings of Marquez's music have been released on ABLAZE Records (USA), RMN Classical Records (UK), Sarton Records (PL), and E.M.P.i.R.E.S Records (USA). Joshua is currently the composer for the upcoming video game, The Girl Who Sees, which explores Filipino culture and history against the backdrop of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during WWII.
Marquez holds a PhD in composition from the University of Iowa in addition to an MM from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Joshua is currently the Artistic Director for the interdisciplinary arts nonprofit, GRIT Collaborative. Marquez served as a Resident Composer for the Saint Mary's College Summer Composition Intensive in Notre Dame, IN (2013-2017), having previously taught at the University of Iowa and the Preucil School of Music.
He has studied with Josh Levine, David Gompper, Mark Engebretson, and Alejandro Rutty in addition to private studies with Samuel Adler, Derek Bermel, Michael Harrison, Laura Kaminsky, David Lang, and Augusta Read Thomas.
The Girl Who Sees
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by InterIntellectus Games
Music Composer
The Sell By Date
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by Emily Soppe
Music Composer
Memsaab Is Good Now?
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by Adrienne Ostberg
Music Composer
North Carolina Arts Council Grant ($1,000)
(2018)
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; Amherst, VA. CSG Fellowship ($5,940), Artist-In-Residence
(2018)
Millay Colony for the Arts; Austerlitz, NY. Fellowship, Artist-In-Residence
(2018)
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts; Nebraska City, NE. Fellowship, Artist-In-Residence
(2018)
Brush Creek Arts Foundation; Saratoga, WY. Fellowship, Artist-In-Residence
(2018)
Toward recorded by Brno Philharmonic and released on Pierrot Ensemble Series Vol. 2 (ABLAZE Records)
(2018)
Soundtrack to "The Girl Who Sees" (InterIntellectus Records)
(2018)
Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center; Bellagio, IT, Artist-In-Residence
(2017)
"Slink" recorded and released on Iwona Glinka’s One Minute (Sarton Records)
(2017)
"Awake" selected for Sayat Nova International Composition Competition Prize
(2016)
"Slough" recorded by Carmine Marcello Rizzi and released on Architectures (RMN Classical)
(2016)
Iowa Social Justice Grant ($1,000)
(2016)
Iowa Arts Across Borders Grant ($1,250)
(2016)
University of Iowa ArtShare Grant ($1,200)
(2016)
"Putrefaction" released on Sonic Flux (E.M.P.i.R.E.S Records)
(2014)
University of Iowa
(2013-2016)
Campbell University
(2013-2016)
University of North Carolina-Greensboro
(2013-2016)