Juan Manuel Marrero is a European composer with a PhD in Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of the Arts, born in 1970 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. He has received numerous international awards and commissions from many parts of the world. His works are performed in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America. In addition to his instrumental works, his music includes vocal, scenic, and electroacoustic works. He has a long career as a lecturer and researcher and has published many articles and essays. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and a tenured professor of the French Republic.

The Cuarteto Ornati, founded in 2003, does significant work both on the concert stage and in the educational field. The quartet's repertoire spans all eras. It includes classical recordings such as the quintets with two violas by José Palomino (1755-1810) for the Sociedad Española de Musicologia (Spanish Society for Musicology), as well as the complete recording of the works for string quartet by Juan Manuel Marrero. Cuarteto Ornati has performed in numerous concert series and festivals. They collaborate with renowned artists. Its members are musicians of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria and teach at its academy. They also collaborate with the International Bach Festival of Gran Canaria, of which their violist Adriana Ilieva is a founding member.

"I have always believed that a composer should make clear the diversity of his compositional language while also engaging with opposing or divergent aesthetics and techniques. The quartets given in this edition, in my view, meet both of these goals. Histoire éphémère d'une plume blanche, Atractivo último de lo imposible, and Quatuor pour un tableau (in two parts) can be understood in the context and tradition of contemporary European timbres and textures. Clearly different from these – practically at the aesthetic antipodes – sit two repetitive and minimal works, the Two American String Quartets." – Juan Manuel Marrero