Arturo Márquez

Márquez has been the recipient of several prestigious awards and honors. He was awarded the National Prize for Arts and Sciences (Mexico) by President Felipe Calderón on December 14, 2009. In February 2006, he made history when he became the first musician to receive "La Medalla De Oro De Bellas Artes de Mexico" (Gold Medal of Fine Arts of Mexico), one of Mexico's most coveted award for career accomplishments in the fine arts. Other awards have included the Medalla Mozart (awarded by the Austrian embassy), Medalla Dr. Alfonso Ortiz Tirado, California Institute of the Arts Distinguished Alumnus Award, Unión de Cronistas de Música y de Teatro, and many others. In 2000, the German public paid homage to the composer at a concert in his honor in Berlin.

His music incorporates forms and styles of his native Mexico. The Danzones are based on the music of the Veracruz region of Mexico. Danzón No. 2 was included on the program of the Simon Bolívar Youth Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel on the 2007 tour of Europe and the United States. The composition has also opened the door for the discovery of other pieces by the composer that are increasingly being performed throughout the world and extensively in Latin America. His Danzones are increasingly being used for ballet productions throughout the world. Márquez is a popular composer among the Latin American public and is widely recognized as one of the most important Mexican composers of his generation.

Márquez has also been honored at several musical festivals throughout Latin America where his music has been performed extensively and has obtained a large following. In 2005, the Arturo Márquez International Music Festival was commenced in Caracas, Venezuela in honor of the composer. In 2014, Márquez was honored as composer-in-residence during the Caribbean Tour of YOA Orchestra of the Americas.

Márquez began composing at the age of 16 and attended the Mexican Music Conservatory, where he studied piano and music theory from 1970 to 1975. Márquez studied composition from 1976 to 1979 with Federico Ibarra, Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras, and Héctor Quintana. In the U.S., he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and in 1990 obtained a MFA in composition from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.

Arturo Márquez Navarro (born 20 December 1950) is a Mexican composer of orchestral music who uses musical forms and styles of his native Mexico and incorporates them into his compositions.

Márquez was born in Álamos, Sonora, in 1950 where his interest in music began. Márquez is the first born of nine children of Arturo Márquez and Aurora Navarro. Márquez was the only one of the nine siblings to become a musician. Márquez's father was a mariachi musician in Mexico and later in Los Angeles. His paternal grandfather was a Mexican folk musician in the northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Márquez's father and grandfather exposed him to several musical styles in his childhood, particularly Mexican "salon music" which would be the impetus for his later musical repertoire.