Canadian Voices: A Prayer to Bring You Home - John Estacio

Inside the MusicCanadian Voices
Written By John Estacio
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What was your inspiration for the work?

Composer - Edmonton's John Estacio

Composer - Edmonton's John Estacio

Inspiration can come from a variety of sources - sometimes it’s an event, a person, a deadline, or the parameters of the commission itself. In this case the inspiration came from all of the above, and from Alice Major’s lovely poem. Alice presented me with her book of collected poetry “Standard Candles” on the day we both received the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award in 2017. It’s a beautiful collection and “A prayer to bring you home” is my favourite poem in her book.

In 1999 I composed “Eulogies” for Pro Coro Canada, a set of 4 choral works based on eulogies that Val Brandt had written for friends and family. In some ways, this is my fifth eulogy, a heartfelt tribute for a mother.

Did you approach this text differently because of the parameters of the work?

Yes, there were a few more things I wanted to do with divided voices and multiple parts, sustaining effects I wanted to create. However, there weren’t enough bodies available due to the restrictions placed upon choral performances during the pandemic. I don’t feel the piece is any weaker without the elements I had hoped to include, in fact I think perhaps its stronger and more succinct in its current guise.

How have you been experiencing writing in isolation? How has COVID-19 impacted the experience of being a writer?

Pro Coro Canada Quartet (from left) Sarah Schaub, Erin Craig, Sascha Adler, Christian Maxfield Michael Zaugg, Conductor

Pro Coro Canada Quartet (from left) Sarah Schaub, Erin Craig, Sascha Adler, Christian Maxfield
Michael Zaugg, Conductor

Most composers, by necessity, live solitary lives while they work. Much of the work composers need to do is accomplished alone on their own at various points in the day. To that end, things haven’t changed much since March 2020. However, the pandemic brings with it the isolation of being away from friends and family, from attending live performances which enrich one’s life, and doing all the social activities one normally enjoys doing. In addition, it was entirely deflating to see performances cancelled, projects postponed indefinitely, and entire artistic companies shut down with no guarantee of when any of that will return to see another day. With life being void of all the things one enjoys, plus the regular loneliness of working solo now amplified and magnified, the motivation to sit down at the piano and spend even more time composing alone has been tenuous at best. As we turn the corner into 2021, there are glimmers of hope that restrictions on gatherings and live performances might be lifted sooner than initially feared. Although, whenever that time is, we can only hope our artistic institutions, large and small, will still be solvent and surviving, brimming with the fortitude to carry-on for people, audiences who will need to find the fortitude of their own to return en masse to live-performance venues.

A Prayer to Bring You Home - John Estacio

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Canadian Voices - Edmonton

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John Estacio

JUNO nominated composer John Estacio is a recipient of the 2017 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award. He has served as Composer in Residence for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Pro Coro Canada, the Calgary Philharmonic, and the Calgary Opera. He is a recipient of the prestigious NAC Award for Composers. His compositions are programed by orchestras throughout North American and his frequent performances and broadcasts have earned him several SOCAN Concert Music Awards.

 

In the last decade he has composed numerous symphonic and operatic works including “Filumena” which has received several remounts in Canada and was filmed for television and broadcast on PBS. “Filumena” was recently commemorated by Canada Post as a stamp in their "Canadian Opera" series. The Cincinnati Ballet commissioned a full length orchestral score for “King Arthur's Camelot”, with choreography by Victoria Morgan; this ballet was remounted in Cincinnati in 2017. 

The National Arts Centre Orchestra and conductor Pinchas Zukerman toured China and the UK with his work “Brio”. In 2017, the NACO and conductor Alexander Shelley toured across Canada with his orchestral work “I Lost My Talk”, inspired by Rita Joe’s poem and commissioned for the Right Honourable Joe Clark on the occasion of his 75th birthday. His “Trumpet Concerto”,  commissioned by nineteen Canadian orchestras, was performed across Canada in 2017/18. His orchestral composition “Moontides” was commissioned by KV265 and will be accompanied by a film montage of the lunar tides. The National Youth Orchestra of Canada with conductor Jonathan Darlington toured Canada and Europe with “Moontides” in 2018.

His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, including performances by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as a performance of his Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in May 2012 by the Edmonton Symphony. The Toronto Symphony also toured the USA with his composition “Wondrous Light”. 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, South America and Asia.

http://www.johnestacio.com/
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