Composer John Estacio has served as Composer in Residence for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic, and the Calgary Opera. His compositions are programmed by orchestras throughout North American and his frequent performances and broadcasts have earned him several SOCAN Concert Music Awards. He has also been nominated for the JUNO Award three times.
In 2014, the Cincinnati Ballet commissioned a full length score for the new ballet King Arthur’s Camelot. In the last decade he has composed numerous symphonic and operatic works including Filumena for Calgary Opera/Banff Centre and Lillian Alling for the Vancouver Opera/Banff Centre. Filumena has received several remounts in Canada and was filmed for television and broadcast on the CBC and PBS.
The National Arts Centre Orchestra and conductor Pinchas Zukerman toured China in 2013 and the UK in 2014 with his orchestral overture “Brio.” The Richard Eaton Singers toured Europe with his new choral work, “branche”, in the summer of 2013. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet featured several of Estacio’s orchestral compositions in a new ballet Wonderland. He recently completed a song cycle for baritone and violin, premiered by Russell Braun and James Ehnes.
His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, including performances by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a performance of his “Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano” by the Edmonton Symphony.
During the past few seasons, the National Youth Orchestra of the Americas toured the US and Canada with “Bootlegger’s Tarantella”. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, along with acclaimed tenor Ben Heppner, toured Europe with Estacio’s arrangements of “Seven Songs of Jean Sibelius”. His orchestral works have been performed by all the major Canadian orchestras, as well as the Houston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and orchestras in Europe and South America.