Monica Demarco

Monica Demarco was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her work is shaped by the vibrant and resilient Albuquerque arts community. She is grateful for the exchange of skills and vision that comes from living and collaborating in the Southwest. Her compositions have won numerous awards, such as the Scott Wilkinson Composition Contest at UNM in 2008 for the piece “Hijas y Mas” and again in 2009 for the piece “Fray.” The composition “Hijas y Mas” has undergone revision over the last decade and was featured as a graphic score installment for National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York in 2019. Discussion of the work was also published in “Experimentalisms in Practice” by Dr. Ana R. Alonso-Minutti.

She acquired a dual bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico in music composition/theory and piano performance in 2009 and a master’s degree in social work from New Mexico Highlands University in 2020. She owns Monica Demarco Music in Albuquerque, which is dedicated to fostering creativity and passion for music in students of all abilities and ages. As a teacher, Demarco strives to provide musical skills, development informed by life course theory and family systems concepts to provide instruction that is socially conscious and uniquely tailored to the individual. 

Demarco performs under the name Cthulha. The project is a synthesis of Demarco’s passions, with piano at the heart and center of the ensemble. Cthulha has enjoyed collaboration with many amazing New Mexican artists who are all featured on the album Always Who You Were released in 2019 in collaboration with Matron Records.  She is also a bassist in the local Albuquerque band Chicharra, The second album Let’s Paint This Town in Craters was released through Matron Records in 2017. She has had the great pleasure of organizing and performing in the music festival Gatas y Vatas founded by Marisa Demarco, which has brought her joy, connection and performance opportunities all over the world. 

Monica Demarco is a composer from Albuquerque, N.M. Her work is shaped by the vitality and authenticity of the community in which she resides and collaborates. Her compositional voice has been fine tuned by the many different musical and creative applications she has the privilege of engaging in.

Her most recent work “Map Songs, Winds of Resilience” had its world premiere March 29th, 2024. The work was commissioned by the University of New Mexico for the Robb Symposium Series. It features the text of the Navajo Nation’s poet laureate Laura Tohe titled “Map Songs of the Sandhill Cranes”. Demarco was completely captivated by the texts ability to illustrate both the hardship of change and the resilience and grace of coming through it. Demarco states, “This is where I believe we all are now, trying to re-shape, reimagine and break into a new world.” The work also contains melodic influence from the John Donald Robb archive that has preserved thousands of New Mexican Folk tunes.

As an educator, her works have included compositions for young, blooming musicians. Demarco enjoys writing for musicians in different stages of development. A colleague and friend Sabrina Murton commissioned solo piano works at a variety of levels in 2016. Each piece centered on New Mexican myths and locations from the book “The Miracles and Mysteries of New Mexico” by Jack Kutz. The second half was commissioned by Lisa Villanueva. The pieces will be finished next fall and published in a collection of 12 solo piano works. Demarco was also commissioned by Intermezzo, a Santa Fe-based children’s string orchestra. For this ensemble, Demarco wrote “Zozobra,” an exploration of the power dynamic within the orchestra as expressed through the story of Zozobra. The piece was focused on allowing young adults to explore their own agency and dynamic voice. At the end of the piece the conductor turns around and takes a seat while the orchestra takes over and finishes the piece.

As a pianist, her studies have greatly impacted her compositional language. Some notable compositions that inspire Demarco are Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No.9 Op.86 , Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus , Ligeti’s piano etude Book III 15. White on White and Ravel’s Gaspard De La Nuit. Monica has so much love and gratitude for her teacher Stephen Montoya who guided her through the process of learning and internalizing these pieces.

As a composer, Demarco had the pleasure of studying with the renowned composer Christopher Shultis at UNM. Through his encouragement, thoughtful conversations and ability to engage with Demarco on her vision and voice, his guidance has had a lasting and profound effect on her work.

As a performance artist, rock and experimental musician, Demarco has had the wonderful experience of collaborating in countless collectives of incredible musicians that all reside in the Southwest. There is no other place she can imagine being from. The cross pollination of many artistic disciplines including film, aerial arts, dance and visual art would not be possible anywhere else. Demarco’s experience with musical technology and electronic manipulation has been formed by Albuquerque and the legacy of Manny Rettinger.  

Here is an interview with Demarco for the 2024 Robb Symposium Series.

Monica Demarco Music was founded in 2004 and has been growing ever since. The studio strives to help develop all aspects of musicianship including theory, technique, performance and composition. Community building and creative connection is emphasized.

Students are encouraged to pursue the style of music that excites them and to follow their own creative intuition. The studio is open to everyone. All ages, abilities and musical backgrounds are welcome.

Youngsville: “Ditches are Deadly, stay Away” (2024)

This video is a collaboration between Xen Daví (film and animation artist) and Monica Demarco (director). The band members Ryan Sciarrotta, Carlos Garcia and Cody Wilmon collaborated on the story and produced an event at the Guild Cinema featuring all local music video creations. Our team hopes to organize this event annually.

Chicharra: “Adobe” (2018)

As a collaborator, Demarco enjoys playing bass for the band Chicharra, a collage of heavy experimental rock and dreamy vocals. The band released it’s first album in 2016 and released a second album with Matron Records in the fall of 2017. Monica also enjoys conceptualizing and directing music video’s for the band. More of her music videos can be found on the Matron Records youtube channel under Chicharra. 

Cthulha: “Your Bones or Your Bass” (2019)

As a solo artist, Demarco performs under the name Cthulha. This project comes in many different forms including solo experimental musical performance with vocal, piano, cello, and electronics, sometimes featuring an aerial or physical component. Cthulha’s most current album Always Who You Were was released in 2019 in collaboration with Matron Records. The album features many incredible guest artists from New Mexico. The album release featured a ten course meal with a pairing for each song, a choir and aerial performance. The video released with the album features a trapeze piece with an acoustic bass as a duet partner.

Chicharra: “Alloy” (2017)

Demarco was the musical director for AirDance New Mexico, a nonprofit organization devoted to the aerial arts in Albuquerque, N.M. (2012-2019). The company did two full-scale productions a year, and Demarco contributed as both an aerial artist and musician. For each production, she coordinated a new ensemble of local musicians to collaboratively compose new original music for the show. The ensembles have included everything from bands of many musical styles, choirs, string quartets and percussion groups.

Cthulha was the featured cellist and composer for Nemcatacoa Teatro, a Columbian theatre company performing Asymmetrical Bodies as part of Tricklock‘s International Revolutions Theatre Festival 2017. Other projects include her work with Milch de la Máquina, an ABQ founded women’s performance art troupe, and Death Convention Singers, a massive collective of Albuquerque’s most innovative musicians. Over the years, Demarco could also be found playing bass for Ya Ya Boom, a pop-rock project with four produced albums, and on tour with The Red Elvises in 2011.