Marcus Overacker

I’m a composer and guitarist working with notated music, improvisation, hybrid forms/ notation, sound design, and electronic music. My work is often situated between concert music, jazz, and experimental practices, with an emphasis on structure, process, and sound as material.

I’m interested in systems that leave room for instability, scores that invite interpretation, forms that resist closure, and processes where sound and structure combine. Much of my work involves balancing formal constraint with flexibility, allowing performers and contexts to shape the outcome.

I perform primarily as a guitarist, including ongoing work with the MODE Quartet, and in a range of other collaborative settings. Alongside this, I teach guitar and music. Performance and teaching inform one another, shaping how I think about form, technique, and listening. My work also extends into applied settings, including musical theater, chamber ensembles, working with orchestras, and solo performances.

This site functions as a working archive to document projects, share scores, and trace ongoing lines of thought as they develop.

My current large-scale project, EMERGE, is a work for breath, plucked strings, and Yoto player. Updates and ongoing materials appear periodically on THE CURRENTS and WORKS pages. Please reach out for more information.