Marc Vaz (E ’26) is headed to New York after graduation, where he’ll join a young startup as a forward–deployed engineer, embedded directly with clients and working at the shifting edge between product and problem. It’s the kind of role that demands adaptability, and Marc speaks about it with nothing but excitement. In his words, it’s a chance to “start learning once again.”
But lately, programming have only been half of his story.
Outside of the classroom, and beyond the neat career trajectory a computer science degree provides him, Marc spends his nights playing bass for Blue Shade, a five–person band he formed with friends this past August.
“We mostly did covers for the first couple months,” says Marc. “But now we’ve been writing some of our own music. We’ve been doing more gigs [in] different places.” What began with boiler rooms and house shows has turned into a steady rotation of local bars, rooftop venues, and wherever else they can haul their equipment. The group—two guitarists, a drummer, a singer, and Marc—moves fluently between rehearsals, performances, and whatever daytime obligations occupy the rest of their schedule. It’s a commitment, he says—one that can take a lot of time and energy, but is nonetheless “thoroughly enjoyable.”
Marc’s dedication to music long predates Blue Shade. It’s something he’s carried with him since childhood—less a pastime than a principle—and always held close to his heart.
“Whenever I play, it just reminds me of being back home with my family,” he says. “I started playing the guitar and singing for my mom when I was a kid, and so being able to continue doing that through college makes me feel connected to me.” After arriving at Penn, Marc kept up with the habit through The Mask and Wig Club, joining the band his freshman fall and staying for three years before starting Blue Shade. He credits the experience for his development as a musician—but perhaps more importantly, for giving him a set of collaborators. One of these collaborators, close friend and drummer Joseph Dattilo (E ’26), followed him into his next project.
At face value, Marc’s dual pursuits seem like an unlikely combination, governed by different sets of rules and operating in different registers. One involves moving through problem sets and tight deadlines; the other unfolds in ways that are harder to quantify.
But it’s an arrangement that isn’t so uncommon, according to Marc. “Weirdly enough, when I was a freshman in the Mask and Wig band, there were eight of us in it, and I think seven of them were CIS majors. … I think there is an overlap between STEM–related degrees and strong musicians,” explains Marc. If he attributes this intersection to anything, it’s probably the discipline demanded of both—there’s a kind of quiet similarity in the way a musician hones his craft with constant practice, and an engineer hits the books. There’s also a “mathematical” nature to music, Marc says. He observes a patterned structure in composition, in chord progressions, and even in the arrangement of a fretboard.
On the flip side, Marc’s creative instincts also find their way into his coursework. “When I’m writing code, it is an art form,” he says. “There’s multiple ways in which you can do it.” With the room it provides for style and taste–based decision making, coding requires an imagination perhaps overlooked by those outside of the field.
Still, there’s a kind of creative liberty music provides him that he can’t find in the confines of his coding assignments. To put it simply, it makes him “feel like himself.” Grueling gig prep, while exhausting, is the thing he looks forward to each week—as it turns out, the band is prime homework–finishing fuel. “I feel motivated to get all my work done so that I can spend time rehearsing, you know, so I can fit everything in my schedule and get to the next gig,” he explains. This incessant pressure to make time to play is driven by his love to create—something that’s especially meaningful to him now, in a band that allows him a new level of creative freedom. “Especially [with] the music that we’re playing now,” he says. “I get to pick a lot of the set list, so it’s all songs that I really enjoy and have listened [to] for most of my life.”
Marc is inspired by many of the greats—Pink Floyd is the largest influence on his sound, alongside Dire Straits, which has been with him for a long time. The band leans into classic rock, for the most part, but their music changes to fit the audience. Marc’s favorite gig so far was a rooftop show at 3737 Chestnut St. for an Eid celebration. “It was right during the sunset. So it was a cool environment to be playing music. That’s up there for sure.”
But music isn't the only place that this senior strives for greatness. His senior design thesis, a mobile app that encourages you to keep in touch with friends and family, recently won Penn’s Social Impact Award. The app lets users import their contacts and set rough intentions for how often they want to reach out and why. It then nudges them to actually follow through. “The goal here is not to make interacting a chore,” he explains. “It gives you insights into how well you’re actually doing and staying in touch with people.” It’s a problem he’s struggled with himself, which might come as a surprise. Bouncing between Mask and Wig and Blue Shade, preparing for gigs and group projects, you might assume Marc is in constant contact with others, that a schedule this full leaves little room for distance. “Every start of the semester, I would make a notes app [note] and I would write, ‘these are the people I need to catch up with,’” he confesses. “And then I’d never look at the notes app or talk to them at all.”
To Marc, that kind of human connection is essential; it’s a form of kinship that grounds him, reinforced by a relationship with loved ones which he describes as unwaveringly supportive, especially when it comes to his musical ambitions. “It was always seen as like, ‘Wow, this cool thing that you’re able to do’ and not ‘you should be doing something else,’” he explains. “I never felt like it was a waste of time to [play] music instead of focusing on a job.”
That support is a blessing he’s clearly grateful for. From the ease with which he talks about the seeming dualities in his life, it seems to take no real effort for him to maintain his combination of interests. In fact, the University’s elite environment has made that balance all the more normal. “I think Penn especially is a very high achieving place. Everybody’s doing something cool,” he says, as though holding both is a given. Between his supportive foundation and the Penn atmosphere, he seems to be doing exactly what he should be.
But as he leaves campus to take his next big professional step, where will music fit into his life? “This is one of the discussions I’ve been having with my band a lot recently,” Marc starts, explaining that post–graduate plans will leave him and fellow members scattered across Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. The future is uncharted territory, but a semi–hopeful one nonetheless. “We’re trying to figure out a way to make it work. … I mean, we’re going to enter such new phases of life that it’s kind of difficult to predict what’s gonna go where,” he says. “But I definitely intend to keep music in my life.”
This doesn’t mean he won’t bask in the last couple months of senior bliss, with all the time it provides for music–making. As much as he’s eager to start his career in the Big Apple, he’s aware of the ticking clock—right now, it’s just about making the most of the time he has left. “This is kind of one of my last opportunities to do music to my fullest capability,” he says. “So I’m taking advantage of that now.”
As for what comes next, Marc doesn’t seem especially concerned with resolving the question too neatly. He moves between the lights of the stage and the glow of the computer monitor with an unforced confidence—one that suggests he’ll keep finding a way to carry both forward.
