Marco Pereira studied cello at the Escola Profissional de Música de Viana do Castelo and at Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon, with Paulo Gaio Lima. He later attended Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid, where he was a pupil of Natalia Shakovskaya. During this course he had the opportunity to work with other great cello masters such as Natalia Gutman, Gary Hoffman, Phillipe Muller and Ivan Monighetti.

The string quartet has always been important from very early on in his career, reaching its peak with the foundation of the Quarteto de Cordas de Matosinhos. This quartet was selected as ECHO Rising Stars 2015.

In 2003, Marco Pereira won the Portuguese Musical Youth competition in both the Chamber Music and Cello (advanced) categories, and received the Maestro Silva Pereira Prize and the Young Musicians Prize. Abroad, he was awarded 1st prize in the Liezen International Wettbewerb für Violoncello competition in Austria. He also received 1st prize at the 6th Chamber Music Competition of Sardinero, Santander, in 2006.

Marco Pereira is 1st soloist in the cello section of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. He regularly performs as a concert soloist, playing with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Joensuu Orchestra (Finland) and the Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra (U.S.A.), amongst others. He taught cello at the University of Aveiro and University of Minho. Since 2011, he has been the D’Addario Bowed Artist and Faculty Artist of the Atlantic Music Festival – Watterville (U.S.A.).