Background
Maceda was born in Manila, Philippines, and studied piano, composition and musical analysis at École Normale de Musique de Paris in France.
Maceda was born in Manila, Philippines, and studied piano, composition and musical analysis at École Normale de Musique de Paris in France.
After returning to the Philippines, he became a professional pianist, and later studied musicology at Columbia University, and anthropology at Northwestern University.
Starting in 1952, he conducted fieldwork on the ethnic of the Philippines. From about 1954, he was involved in the research and composition of musique concrète. In 1958, he worked at a recording studio in Paris which specialized in musique concrète.
During this period, he met Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis.
In 1963, Maceda earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Los Angeles He began pursuing a compositional career more vigorously. At the same time, he held concerts in Manila until 1969, in which he performed and conducted.
This series of concerts introduced Boulez, Xenakis and Edgard Varèse to the Filipino public.