Tomas Marco studied violin and composition while at secondary school, and in 1963 he graduated in Law at the University of Madrid. He extended further his music composition education in Germany and in France with Boulez, Stockhousen, Maderna, Ligeti and Adorno. He was assistant of Stockhousen in 1967. Marco has been awarded with many prizes. Some of them are Premio Nacional de Música (1969), the Honor Prize at the VI Paris Biennal, Golden Harp (1975), Casal Award (1976), UNESCO's International Rostrum of Composers Award (1976). He recently received the Premio Nacional de Musica for his whole work (November 2002), and in 2004 the Premio de Musica of the Community of Madrid.
He has been a promotor of contemporary music through his position as professor of composition at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Madrid, and as professor of History of Music at UNED. He had an important role in the diffusion of contemporary music repertoir during his music service at Radio Nacional. He was director of Centro para la Difusión de Música Contemporánea (1985 - 1995), where he created the Electroacoustic Music Lab. In 1985 Marco founded the International Festival for Contemporary Music held in Alicante, and was its director during the first 11 editions.
Tomas Marco has composed 6 operas, 1 ballet, 10 symphonies, chamber and choral music. He is now exclusively dedicated to composing music and writing essays about music.