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John Estacio’s music – an enduring gift

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At a pivotal point in his then-emerging career as a composer, John Estacio landed in Edmonton as the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s first Composer in Residence. Since then, Albertans have enjoyed a front row seat as Estacio’s output of stirring, vibrant compositions across multiple musical platforms have delighted audiences here and beyond.

“When I got the call to move here in 1992 to be Edmonton Symphony’s first composer in residence I had been exploring options in Ontario, BC, New York City and Los Angeles”, recalls Estacio. “I had no idea where I would end up. In Alberta there was opportunity, there was room to explore…. I felt very supported here.”

Count us blessed then – Estacio has been a musical fixture in Alberta since those days and has also served as composer in residence for the Calgary Philharmonic, the Calgary Opera, and Pro Coro Canada. He is well known to audiences across the continent for his varied orchestral, operatic and choral compositions and numerous commissioned pieces that have earned him SOCAN Concert Music Awards and multiple JUNO nominations.

On March 21, 2025 the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra celebrates John Estacio with an evening of Estacio’s works curated by him. A selection of new pieces will be bookended by an early piece from his ESO residency – The Harvesters (3rd movement of A Farmer’s Symphony, 1994) and the ESO premiere of his latest orchestral work Avé (2025). The concert, conducted by ESO Resident Conductor Cosette Justo Valdés includes orchestral and chamber works, a string quartet written for the Banff International String Quartet Competition, and a trio for baritone, violin and piano.

Estacio has been composing melodies in his head since he was a young boy: he recalls one late night being requested by his mother to tone down his singing because he was keeping the rest of the household awake.

“I was hearing stuff in my head and eager to get it into my fingers and on to a keyboard. I had tunes, melodies, musical sounds I wanted to express outside my head.” His first musical training was lessons on the accordion ‘in the next town over’ from his rural Ontario home.

Inspiration for Estacio can come from literally anywhere: “There are different starting points for each composition.”  This could be a germ of a musical idea, a small melody, a shape of a structure for a composition. An historic or current life event might drive a composer to create a new piece of music.

“There is no set formula on how I start a piece,” says Estacio.

For his wildly popular Trumpet Concerto – commissioned in 2017 by a consortium of 19 Canadian orchestras to honour Canada’s 150th birthday – Estacio drew on the myth of Titan for the first movement. ‘Titan’s Trumpet’ evokes Titan controlling the raging ocean – in this case with a blast of his trumpet. At the time, Estacio sensed political and social tempests erupting globally. “That idea of trying to calm the seas of discord was very much front of mind for me.”

John Estacio and NAC Principal Trumpet Karen Donnelly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra Photo by CurtisPerry courtesy of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra

Karen Donnelly, Principal Trumpet with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, calls the Trumpet Concerto ‘a gift to the trumpet repertoire’ and ‘an epic piece’. She cited the long soaring lines, the music’s poignancy, its energy and elements of fun as contributors to the joy of playing the work this past November with the NAC Orchestra.

His wish list includes hopes to see his Calgary Opera-commissioned opera The Cipher Clerk staged. “It would be wonderful to bring my most recent opera to life on stage. It’s been 10 years in the making with librettist Clem Martini.” New works are a harder sell for opera lovers, but The Cipher Clerk – based on the true story of a clerk in the Russian Embassy alerting the Canadian, American, and British governments that Russia has been spying on the countries covertly – feels very current.

“I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a choral symphony – a big work for choir and orchestra.” Smaller pieces also appeal: little chamber pieces, quartets, trios, song cycles. “My catalogue has a lot of larger works but I enjoy the intimacy of working with one or two musicians and writing something more flexible.”

He’d love to do more collaborations, “composing can be a lonely occupation at times.” Estacio adds more film scores, composing for another ballet, writing a musical theatre piece to his list.

There are ‘tens of thousands’ of choices to be made in music composition – and John Estacio continues to hear those melodies in his head with the same eagerness to translate them to music that he had as a young boy.

Photo by Curtis Perry courtesy of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra

John Estacio 2017 Distinguished Artist

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