Marco, Tomás

Tomás Marco (Madrid, 1942) studied violin and composition alongside higher secondary studies and a degree in Law. He also took courses in Psychology, Sociology and Performing Arts. He widened his musical studies in France and Germany with teachers such as Maderna, Boulez, Stockhausen, Ligeti, Koenig and Adorno. In 1967, he was assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen in Darmstadt.

Prizes: National Music Prize in 1969 and 2002; Gaudeamus Foundation (Netherlands) in 1969 and 1971; VI Paris Biennale; Casals Centenary; Golden Harp; UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers; Community of Madrid Music Prize. Gold Medal in the Madrid Royal Conservatory in 2013 and Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 2014. In 2016 he was awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Ibero-American Prize and in 2018 he received the ADE Medal. He also holds the National Broadcasting Prize and the Ondas Prize.

He was Professor of New Techniques at the Madrid Royal Conservatory and Professor of History of Music at the National University of Distance Education (UNED). He has delivered courses in numerous institutions and universities in Europe and the Americas, and has worked as a music critic in several media outlets.

His work as an essayist is very significant, especially two works among his many important and wide-ranging studies: Musical Thought and the 20th Century (2003) and, above all, Cultural History of Music (2008), perhaps his most ambitious work and one of the most complete books of its time, providing a historical journey through music and everything related to it over time. He also revised The Dictionary of Music: Men and Their Works by the French musicologist Marc Honegger, published in Spain by Espasa Calpe in 1994.

He spent eleven years working for the music departments of Spanish National Radio. From 1981 to 1985, he was Managing Director of the Autonomous Organisation of National Orchestras and Choirs of Spain and was Technical Director of the same groups between 1991 and 1995. From 1985 to 1995, he worked as Director of the National Centre for Music's Diffusion, creating its electro-acoustic laboratory and the Alicante International Festival. He served as director for the first 11 editions.

Since 1993 he has been a full member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and from 1977 to 1996 he was a board member of the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE).

He was Director of Festivals of the Community of Madrid in 1996. From May of that year until July 1999, he was Director General of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM).

In 1998 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is currently director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and a member of the Culture Board of the Government of Navarre.

He has composed more than 250 works, among which are seven operas, a ballet, a light opera, ten symphonies, choral music, chamber music, music for theatre and audiovisual projects.