Meet Joe Marquez | Music Producer & Composer

An understanding of my desire to pursue an artistic career can be captured by a collection of experiences involving one piece of music – Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18. Don’t be bored by its mundane catalogue description; while it doesn’t have a catchy title like “Hotel California” or “Bohemian Rhapsody”, this piece is just as moving. It means so much to me along with my journey with it.

This experience started when I was 16 years old. At this age, I had been 10 years into learning classical piano. My love for classical piano was at an all time high; Peter Yazbeck, my piano teacher and one of the most pivotal figures behind my musical identity, unlocked my piano performance skills to a whole new level. Once I began studying with him, he built upon the strong foundation laid by my previous piano teacher, Ruth Humphries. From him, I received the confidence to learn anything. When I began learning classical piano, I had an innate feeling that if I stuck with it long enough, I could learn anything I wanted. Mr. Yazbeck made this intuition my reality.

Fast forward to my sophomore year of high school. Perusing classical music on YouTube, I found a short video taken from the Korean film “For Horowitz.” It’s a film about how an orphaned boy is molded to become a pianist reminiscent of the great Vladmir Horowitz. Most important to me, it was the cold open to Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto.

Upon hearing it the first time, I was immediately fascinated by it. Its performance in the film is truncated, featuring some of the highlights of the piece’s first and third movements. I don’t know what mystical energy hijacked my emotions when I heard it. For several nights after hearing it for the first time, I would close my eyes and pretend that I was Yoon Gyung-min playing this beautiful and deeply emotional piece.

After discovering the concerto’s identity, I shared my love for it with my piano teacher, who instantly knew it. Mr. Yazbeck toured Canada and the States as a performer, but his big debut was in New York, performing none other than Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Intrigued by my interest in the piece, he agreed that I should learn it. His agreement was sparked both from my insistence to study it and knowing that a local orchestra would feature young artists to perform movements from compositions like it at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Page after page, I started with the final movement (my favorite movement). The concerto itself was written during a dark time of Rachmaninov’s life. Subsequent to negative reception of one of his symphonies, he fell into a great depression that was only remedied by Nikolai Dahl, the therapist to whom Rachmaninov dedicated the work to. You definitely feel this if you listen to the complete work—a moving overture with glimpses of a beautiful past, a tumultuous march followed by a nostalgic interlude, and a grand finale where redemption is achieved. After several months chopping away at it, I was successful in my audition to perform with the T.O. Phil.

Having never performed with an orchestra, I was not armed with the appropriate performance garb. Upon telling my piano teacher this at his Camarillo home, he went into his hallway, and pulled out a tuxedo—the same tuxedo he wore during his debut performance. Stunned, I accepted it with much gratitude, and was able to wear it for my own orchestral debut.

That day, August 8th, 2013, was the culmination of these experiences. It elevated me to another state of mind and made me experience a whole new level of human experience. A piece of music written in 1901, which revitalized a composer after a career failure, found life in me and created memories that I will relive forever. Rachmaninov left a piece of him behind, and, wearing a relic of the past, it brought life and purpose to me. During my lifetime, my goal is to make art that can do the same to someone else who happens to hear it. That’s why I choose a path of creativity.

I am a music creator—I say that as a music producer, engineer, songwriter, concert pianist, composer, arranger, and singer. If someone has a musical need, I have the compositional, technical, and creative expertise to bring anyone’s musical vision to life. Having the unique combination of classical composition and music production knowledge, I am confident when I say that I can tackle any musical task presented before me. Short films, covers, remixes, singles, jingles—name what is needed, give me some references, and I will make it for you. My classical background is what I am most proud of and associating with people further along in the musical journey has brought me to where I am now. Asking questions, being vulnerable, and not stopping is how I overcame all challenges that came up during my 7 years of being a music producer.