Cameron Marquez is a percussionist, chamber musician, soloist and educator based in Chicago, IL. As a Fellow of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he engages with the Chicago community in various capacities including contemporary chamber concerts, educational engagement and projects that uplift underrepresented communities. Marquez is a substitute percussionist in the New World Symphony, Dubuque Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, Evanston Symphony, Lake County Symphony, World Ballet Company, Ballet Indiana, Chicago Composers Orchestra, and is a founding member of Chicago-based percussion collective, Bridge Percussion. As an educator, Marquez also serves as Percussion Coordinator and private lessons instructor at Niles West High School in Skokie, IL.
In 2021, Marquez won 2nd Prize at the PASIC Collegiate Solo Marimba Competition. He has also competed in the Great Plains International Marimba Competition, where he was a Semi-Finalist in 2022, and a Finalist in 2023. Additionally, Marquez has benefited from time at the Eastern Music Festival, National Music Festival, and two summers at the Aspen Music Festival, where he received a percussion fellowship and studied with Cynthia Yeh, Ed Stephan and Douglas Howard. Marquez received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022, where he studied with Thomas Burritt, Tony Edwards, Ivan Trevino and Robert Duke. He then continued his education at Northwestern University, where he held a graduate assistantship and received his Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance in 2024, graduating with program honors, and studying with She-e Wu, Christopher Lamb, Edward Stephan and Vadim Karpinos.
