Marco Pereira was born in Sao Paulo and got classical guitar lessons with the Uruguayan master Isaias Sávio and music theory lessons at the Music and Drama Conservatory of São Paulo.
He lived in France for five years and received a classical guitar master's degree in performance from the Université Musicale Internationale of Paris, and a master's degree in Musicology from the University of Paris-Sorbonne with his thesis Heitor Villa-Lobos and his guitar work (Editora Musimed – Brasília – Brasil).
In Paris, he was strongly influenced by jazz and Latin-American music which characterizes his compositional work, added to Brazilian styles. He performed with great success at 9ème Festival de Jazz de Paris that allowed him to perform in Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Canada and the United States. In Spain, he won two awards in important international guitar competitions: Concurso Andrés Segóvia (Palma de Mallorca) and Concurso Francisco Tárrega (Valencia).
On his return to Brazil, Marco settled in Brasilia after he was invited by UnB (University of Brasilia) to establish the courses of Classical Guitar and Functional Harmony. He recorded his first two albums for Som da Gente (Violão Popular Brasileiro Contemporaneo – 1985 - and Circulo das Cordas – 1987). These two records allowed him to perform in The Town Hall of New York, in 1988. In 1989 he moved to Rio de Janeiro and took part in the Free Jazz Festival in four instances: in a memorable performance with Trio D'Alma in 1989; with his own work in 1991; with Wagner Tiso in 1992, and with Edu Lobo in 1996. He recorded with many prominent artists in the Brazilian musical scenario, such as, Gal Costa, Tom Jobim, Edu Lobo, Gilberto Gil, Wagner Tiso, Daniela Mercury, Zizi Possi, Zélia Duncan, Cassia Eller, Rildo Hora, Paulinho da Viola, Milton Nascimento, Leila Pinheiro, Fátima Guedes, Nelson Goncalves and Roberto Carlos amongst others.
Marco Pereira received the important Sharp Award in two different editions: as Best Arranger (1993) for Gal Costa's album and as Best Soloist and Best Album of the Year (1994) for Bons Encontros with the pianist Cristovão Bastos.
Currently, he a professor in the Composition Departament at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). His compositions were issued by the publisher Éditions Lemoine - Paris, France - and GSP (Guitar Solo Publications) - San Francisco, CA - USA, Editora Musimed (Brasília - Brazil) and Editora Garbolights (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). and have been played and recorded by important guitarists all around the world.
In 1995, Marco released three albums: Dança dos Quatro Ventos for the Belgian label GHA; Elegia for Channel Classics of The Netherlands; and Brasil Musical for the Brazilian label Tom Brasil. In 1999, Marco released his solo album Valsas Brasileiras with an exquisite repertoire of the modern Brazilian popular waltzes. In 2001 he released the album Luz das Cordas recorded with the mandolin player Hamilton de Holanda. In 2004 he recorded two different albums: Original – GSP (Guitar Solo Publications - San Francisco, CA – www.gspguitar.com ) with his own compositions for solo guitar, and O samba da minha terra – Independent – with new arrangements and compositions for guitar, bass, drums and percussion. In 2006 he did an album with harmonica: Afinidade; in 2007 he released his album with orchestra: Camerístico; still in 2007 he released his book+CD Ritmos Brasileiros (Braziian Rhythms). He also has two CDs in Europe: Stella del Matino (EGEA – Perugia – Italy) and Essence (Kind of Blue – Lugano – Switzerland).
In 2010 he released a new solo guitar album together with a book that contains all arrangements and compositions transcribed in musical notation. He also released a method for 7 strings guitar (‘Sete Cordas – técnica e estilo’). In 2011 he released his "Cadernos de Harmonia" (a Harmony method for guitar in 3 volumes) and a CD with his work for guitar and orchestra.
His composition "Lendas Amazônicas", for two guitars and orchestra was premiered in November 2012 in São Paulo, Brazil.
In 2017, his "Concerto Calunga", for guitar and orchestra, was premiered in Russia having Eduardo Isaac as soloist.