Canadian composer John Estacio presents his composition Brio: Toccata and Fantasy for Orchestra on Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra's Performance and Education Tour of China.

It’s exciting to hear the music of a living composer – his or her ideas, thoughts, and the techniques and structures that they import to express their vision. Born in Newmarket, Ontario and now based in Edmonton, Alberta, Mr. Estacio is a recipient of the National Arts Centre Award for Composers. As part of this distinguished honour, Mr. Estacio creates three commissioned pieces specifically for the NAC Orchestra. Brio is one of those works. Mr. Estacio recently explained his inspiration for the piece, and spoke passionately about the way that the visual environment feeds his creative process. Architecture plays a key role. Mr. Estacio explains, "Even architecture - you take it and you internalize it. It's something that makes me want to create. Someone once said is 'music frozen in time', and I think there's a lot of truth to that. It's a visual inspiration, like looking at a painting or reading a book or seeing a film. It serves as an inspiration and as a tool."

See and hear the work of the award-winning John Estacio as the National Arts Centre Orchestra takes Brio to a whole new audience – surely a Canadian export worth following on Facebook and Twitter, at #nacochina