WELCOME
I’m a composer, music producer, sound engineer, director, actor, performer, and pianist with experience in film scoring, musical theatre, arranging, audio production, and bringing original stories from concept to the stage.
About
My name is Marcelo Cantu
I’ve always been fascinated by how music can completely change the way a story feels. I’m a composer and storyteller from Monterrey, Mexico, currently studying Music Composition at Loyola University New Orleans. From scoring films to creating original musical theatre, I love bringing stories and emotions to life through music.
A Soldier’s Naive Heart
A Soldier’s Naive Heart is an original one-hour musical featuring an entirely original story, score, and lyrics, co-created by Leonardo Campos and me. Set during a revolution, it explores love, friendship, sacrifice, and freedom through a fully staged student-led production with an original cast and live performance.
A Soldier's Naive Heart
A Soldier's Naive Heart
A Soldier’s Naive Heart — PROSHOT | Original Musical, Act I
TRAILER | A Soldier’s Naive Heart — Official PROSHOT
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Watch the PROSHOT
During our senior year of high school, we brought Act I of A Soldier’s Naive Heart from an idea to a fully staged, one-hour original musical. What started as a creative project grew into a complete student-led production, with students involved in every part of bringing the show to life—from the original story, music, and lyrics to the direction, performances, set, lighting, costumes, and sound.
Beyond the stage production, we also took the music into a professional recording studio to produce a cast recording, giving the score a life beyond the live performance. The project became an opportunity to experience the entire process of creating an original musical, from writing and development to production, performance, and recording.
Showreel
This showreel features a selection of some of my strongest compositions, highlighting my work across film scoring, theatre, and instrumental music.
Below, you can explore these projects in more depth, including my original score for Romeo & Juliet, the score for Fading Memory, 1 Min Playlist, a collection of short pieces inspired by different musical styles and ideas, and my original piano album. Each project represents a different side of my work as a composer and storyteller.
Romeo & Juliet — Original Score
For my high school’s production of Romeo & Juliet, I composed approximately 25 minutes of original music in just one week. The score was written for a full orchestral sound and built around recurring character and story motifs, allowing musical ideas to develop alongside the play.
Working within a live theatrical production also meant composing around specific scenes, transitions, dramatic beats, and timing—creating a cohesive score that supported the story from beginning to end.
Tiempo Fuera
Tiempo Fuera is a 12-minute short film produced for TecSalud, featuring Memo Maldonado and centered around medicine and the human experiences behind it. I worked on the project as a composer, creating an original score designed to support the film’s emotional journey and storytelling.
Fading Memory
Fading Memory is a 15-minute documentary by NYU student filmmaker Santiago Cantú, featuring an original score composed for the film. The music was created to support the documentary’s emotional narrative, using subtle textures, recurring musical ideas, and atmosphere to complement the story without overpowering it.
Fading Memory
A collection of musical ideas, short compositions, and creative experiments inspired by films, composers, and different cinematic styles. These pieces are a space for me to explore new sounds, emotions, and techniques while continuing to develop my own voice as a composer.
For selected sheet music and scores, click here: View Sheet Music
Live String Quartet
An original string quartet composed during my time at Berklee, exploring how four individual voices can work together to create movement, contrast, and emotion. The piece gave me the opportunity to develop my writing for strings while experimenting with harmony, texture, and musical storytelling.
To view the sheet music, click here. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12FPnonNUMqXlfBchwJQzNxIAWYAjYf7G?usp=drive_link
Foreign Bodies
Foreign Bodies, directed by Hope Maugeri, was created as her college thesis film. I composed approximately 21 minutes of original music for the project, developing a score that supports the film’s characters, atmosphere, and emotional journey. Here are a few selected clips featuring my original score within the film.
Un Día Solitario en Invierno
Un Día Solitario en Invierno is a one-hour film by Santiago Cantú for which I composed the original score. The project gave me the opportunity to develop music across a longer narrative, building themes, atmosphere, and emotion throughout the film. Below, you can listen to the extended soundtrack and watch one of the scenes featuring the original score.
Un Dia Solitario en Invierno
Main theme-Un Dia Solitario en Invierno #13
Un Dia Solitario en Invierno #1
Un Dia Solitario en Invierno #2
Piano Works
Piano Works is a collection of original piano pieces focused on experimentation with texture, harmony, atmosphere, and emotion. The album explores the piano beyond traditional writing, using different musical ideas and techniques to discover new sounds and intimate sonic landscapes.
Passive Aggressive
Passive Aggressive is an original song by artist Raquel Treviño. I worked on the track as the producer, creating and developing the instrumental production to support her artistic vision and the sound of the song.
Below, you can listen to the final track.