Frigate Captain Maestro Marcos Romão dos Reis, head of the Navy Band, was born in Loures on 6 March, 1917. He joined the band at the age of 16 as a cabin boy and apprentice clarinet player, being promoted to sergeant at the age of 19 with the same speciality.
He enrolled at the National Conservatory of Music, where he studied Musical Education, Composition, Italian, History of Music, Acoustics, Clarinet, and Piano while completing his secondary education in regular schools. He completed his course in the Reed Instruments Class of Prof. Abílio da Conceição Meireles in 1937, with the highest grade. He joined the Navy Band in 1933 as a clarinet player. In 1956, he took on the position of Chief Conductor of the Navy Band.
As a clarinet player, he won all the competitions in which he took part, which later earned him the nomination as special clarinet professor at the National Music Conservatory.
As First Lieutenant he was awarded the Military Order of Aviz and was promoted to Captain Lieutenant late in 1970.
He made several study trips abroad and is the author of numerous works, including the military march 'O Regresso de um Fuzileiro', which, as its name implies, is a work for a specific occasion, written in 1969.
He was a member of panels of competitions organised by the former F.N.A.T., now INATEL, by the Autonomous Region of the Azores, and by the Ayuntamiento of Valencia (Spain). He taught clarinet at the National Conservatory from 1957 to the mid-1980s. He also taught for a few years at the Luís António Maldonado Rodrigues Music School, in Torres Vedras, and taught several courses at many other music schools and in the Costa do Estoril International Music Courses. He drew up the syllabus for the Clarinet course of the 1971 Pedagogical Experience, which foresaw the creation of higher education courses in music, including several pieces intended for that purposes. As a composer, he wrote for bands and instrumental ensembles. As a composition teacher, he dedicated some of his time to preparing candidates for competitions to the position of military bandmaster.