Biography
Los Angeles and Seattle-based cellist and composer Olivia Marckx was the only female American cellist invited to participate in the 2026 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. She has soloed with the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Cascade Symphony, Colburn Orchestra, and USC Thornton Symphony, among others, and performed at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, the Colburn and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, and live on the Violin Channel. Olivia advanced to the semi-finals of the 2025 Washington International Competition and and also participated in the prestigious Naumburg Competition. She has a silver medal from the Coeur d’Alene International Young Artists Competition and won the 2025 Thornton Concerto Competition for low strings. A new music enthusiast, Olivia has premiered countless works and collaborated with prominent contemporary musicians such as Adam Tendler, Arlen Hulsko, Michael Gordon, Ken Thomson, Tony Arnold, and Dan Trueman among others. She has also performed alongside artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Chee-Yun Kim, Jon Kimura Parker, Anthony Marwood, and Time for Three.
As a composer, Olivia’s works often reflect her early exposure to Scottish folk music and are characterized by luminous harmonies, whimsical textures, idiomatic virtuosity, and driving rhythms. Growing up, Olivia spent time busking at Seattle’s Pike Place Market where she learned firsthand how to engage passers-by with her music, aiming to not only draw a crowd, but to hold their attention. She strives to recreate that authentic audience connection in the concert hall by creating performances that compel people to listen.
Olivia is a winner of the 2026 USC Thornton New Music For Orchestra Competition, resulting in a premiere performance of her own concerto with the orchestra. She also received honors at the 2024 NACUSA-LA National Composition Competition and the Seattle Festival Orchestra International Call for Scores. Her works, recognized as “Gorgeous…swirling yet measured beauty,” (Bandcamp) have been commissioned/and or performed by Simone Porter, Tony Arnold, The Lyris String Quartet, and the Pacific, Thornton, South Coast and San Fernando Valley Symphonies and Seattle Festival Orchestra. Her music has been featured at the Bang on a Can Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, New Music on the Point, and Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall).
Olivia has attended Yellow Barn, Bang on A Can Summer Festival, New Music on the Point, Aspen Music Festival, Perlman Music Program and Heifetz Chamber Music Seminar and holds performance degrees (BM and MM) from the Colburn Conservatory, where she studied with Clive Greensmith. Olivia is currently pursuing double doctoral degrees (DMA) at USC’s Thornton School, studying cello with Ralph Kirshbaum and composition with Dr. Donald Crockett.
