Estefane Santos

We sat down with Estefane Santos to discuss her career so far and thoughts around music and education.

To begin with, I would like to know details about yourself and some background on your music journey.

I am a black trumpet player, warrior, humble, and with a good heart. I emphasize that I am a warrior because I come from a family of humble conditions but that this was not an impediment but more motivation for me to pursue my dreams. In this quest to achieve my dreams, I received four consecutive scholarships from the Latin Grammy Foundation for the completion of my bachelor's degree and my Graduate Degree in Musical Education.

Music came to me very early, because I attended church from birth, from singing to learning a wind instrument which started with the flute. The taste for the trumpet actually came from a question of having only men play, and I really wanted to change that thought, at least in my church. I progressed with the instrument and took it very seriously, attending the Conservatory, College, and currently a Postgraduation.

I was raised in church, so music was always very present to me. But a really cool memory I have is that I loved listening to the radio. Once I was skipping the stations until it stopped at Radio Cultura FM 103.3. After midnight they broadcast popular repertoires like jazz and Brazilian music. I recall hearing that distinct trumpet sound from Miles Davis playing “Round Midnight” and that's when I fell in love! I recall this scene a lot as if it were today.

How would you describe your relationship with music and education?

When I started studying music, both in church and in the social project, I had no trumpet classes, even though I already played in bands and orchestras. I basically took methods and studied on my own until I passed the EMESP Tom Jobim School of Music, where I finally had the chance to have a trumpet teacher and resume theoretical classes. After this phase, I entered college and my taste for teaching was increasing, especially in observing that there were not many women teaching. I started tutoring and then I went to school where I finished my bachelor's degree last year and have now already entered a postgraduate degree in Musical Education.

I'm very grateful to the music for taking me to places I would never have imagined going. Not just thinking about material things. But it fills me in an inexplicable way. So, my relationship with music is one of gratitude and immense respect.

When I’m playing an instrument, surely there's a movie going on in my mind, I think of all the obstacles I ran through to get here. It is always a feeling of gratitude and happiness to be doing what I have always loved, and to see everything I have planted and everything I am reaping. It's looking back and making sure it was all worth it.

Through the teaching of music, I give back everything I have learned to other generations. I could never live without teaching; I learn so much, and I never want to stop learning. Just as I came from the periphery I would very much like to provide a good musical education for people who come from this same place and have a similar love of music. But I also really want to teach in colleges, in places where people like me, a Black Woman, have space. And when other girls arrive in these places, they will finally have representation and will believe that their day will come.

My teaching focuses on helping people through art, because I believe that through music, regardless of whether they will follow this path, they can change their thinking or some characteristic making them more patient, disciplined, determined, and respecting the difference between other cultures. Depending on the student's objective, the focus will be different, whether he/she studies as a hobby or being a professional, regardless of the student's objective, the focus is to humanize people more within the art.

I feel like I'm delivering a message to every person, especially when we talk about improvisation. When I get up to do a solo it is not just notes but a story being told, my story and overcoming where I came from and how I feel blessed to have at least managed to provide that moment for each one who is watching the performance.

A very important point is to have discipline. I always think a lot about this point, for you to be a good musician is not that you are born with talent or a "gift". Sometimes you really may have ease, but if you don't have discipline in studies nothing helps. Being determined, being patient, even wrong in a song or improvising to think that tomorrow will be another day. Never give up. Other points are to always be creative, to have respect for the music and the rhythms played. I believe all these things will make you a better musician and a better human being.

Have you ever faced any gender equality issues? How did you overcome these issues?

Yeah, I've been through some problems. I believe that the best thing to do is always take the music above all else. And thinking that I don't depend on that person or that malicious comment. I try to strengthen myself with other women, especially with women who are already in the market longer than me. The most important thing is our art, our music, always!

What changes do you think need to be made to empower women and girls in the field of music?

I believe that we all need to be united, both in dialogue and in work, always strengthening when calling to play the gigs, singing and studying together. Just as other women musicians have welcomed me, I believe it will also help the next generations.

Message to the next generation

In 2022 I gave a Workshop at the Jazz Trumpet Festival, one of the largest international trumpet festivals here in Brazil, and I was the first Brazilian, Black Woman to introduce this workshop. It is attended by many men, and when I finished the class, a young female student came to me and said, “You are my greatest inspiration.” At that moment my eyes filled with tears, and with those words in my heart, and it all made sense. Often, we don't need to say something but rather use our tool, which is music, to give hope to the next generations. Holding hands with each other, we will have many more people to inspire us. Just as I was an inspiration to that girl, she will also be an inspiration to others.

I'd like to leave a quote from Ella Fitzgerald, which has always made me stronger. “Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think it can go wrong. It's not where you came from, it's where you're going that counts.”