Born: 1916, Calabozo, Venezuela
Died: 1988, Caracas, Venezuela

I am satisfied for having lived to the fullest as a musician and citizen. I enjoy inner happiness and face responsibilities toward myself and my country with the only means at my command: my music.

An accomplished woodwind player, Estévez studied oboe and composition in Caracas and played oboe in the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra. He studied in the U.S. with Leonard Bernstein and others at Columbia and Tanglewood for four years. After returning to Venezuela he wrote his nationalistic masterpiece, the Cantata Criolla. His music subsequently took a much more modernist direction and he studied electronic music in Paris. He founded the Studio de Fonología Musical in Caracas and composed an electronic environmental piece for the Venezuela Pavilion at the Montreal World’s Fair.

Further listening:
Melodia en el Llano
Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra
of Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel (DG)