Marcelo Urias was born in 1966 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. He started piano lessons at age 12 with professor Maria Antonieta Wolff de Carvalho. A few years later, due to great progress, he was accepted to the class of Henriqueta Duarte, a famous Brazilian pianist, at the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná. In the following years Marcelo won many piano competitions and took advanced piano studies with Luis Carlos de Moura Castro at the Hartt School of Music, Hartford, Connecticut in 1987; American pianist Roberta Rust in Miami, Florida, 1996; and José-Ramos Santana at the Westminster Choir College in 1999.

His conducting studies began in 1988 with the Argentine conductor Gerardo Gorosito, at the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná. It was a time when the young musician developed a passion for Choral music and for conducting in general. After this period Marcelo conducted several choirs in his home State of Paraná and maintained a firm interest in Orchestral Conducting. In 1993 he founded the Chamber Orchestra of Ponta Grossa, PR.

In 1999 he was accepted to the Westminster Choir College Graduate Program. He had then the opportunity to rehearse and perform with some of the world's best conductors and orchestras, such as Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic and Zdenek Macal and the New Jersey Symphony.

In 2000 Marcelo transferred to the world-renowned Indiana University School of Music, where he obtained a Master in Music degree in Choral Conducting. He is currently writing a dissertation on the choral music of Brazilian composer Osvaldo Lacerda as part of his Doctoral degree requirements. At IU, Marcelo served as an Assistant Instructor to the Choral Department, teaching conducting courses and conducting some IU ensembles such as the Women's Chorus and the Opera Chorus; with the latter group he prepared the American premiére of the opera Jeppe, by Swedish composer Sven-David Sändstrom. He was also the Assistant Conductor of the Bloomington Chamber Singers in the preparation of the world-premiére of Cary Boyce's oratorio Dreams.

His guest appearances with orchestras in Brazil include the Londrina State University Symphony Orchestra and the Paraná State Symphony Orchestra, concerts that achieved great acclaim from critics and audiences.

Since 2007 he is the Music Director of Cokesbury United Methodist Church, in Knoxville, TN, one of largest Methodist churches in the US. Marcelo Urias has been an active member of the League of American Symphony Orchestras and also the American Choral Directors Association.