Francisco Estévez: Mormon Composer

Francisco Estévez, affectionately known as Paco, is a musician, composer, and collaborator. He has gained recognition for his electronic and avant-garde work and collaborated with Kraftwerk, a groundbreaking electronic band. He is the original organizer of the youth orchestra Orquestra de Jovenes Virtuosos.

He was born on April 5, 1945, in the long-contested Moroccan region of Africa, raised in Spain, and studied in Europe, particularly at the New Music Institute at Darmstadt, the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, the Center for Electronic Music at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and the Conservatorio Superior de Sevilla.

Estévez is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His work is archived with the Church History Library and the Brigham Young University Special Collections. Composer Nathan Thatcher wrote Paco, a memoir, archive, and catalog of the work of Estévez. Although Estévez retired, he is enjoying a renaissance and in 2016 was awarded the Barlow Endowment music commission.