Eight-time Grammy winner Gloria Estefan is writing the music and lyrics for an original stage musical called Five Notes about Paraguay’s Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, the singer announced today.
In an Instagram post, Estefan said she’s collaborating with her daughter Emily Estefan for the music, with the book written by playwright Karen Zacarías. Dear Evan Hansen director Michael Grief will direct Five Notes, according to Estefan.
Five Notes is inspired by the Orquesta De Reciclados De Cateura, also known as The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura or simply the Recycled Orchestra, an orchestra composed of children from Asunción, Paraguay, who played musical instruments made from scrap materials collected from a local landfill. Formed in 2012, the orchestra performed internationally with Stevie Wonder and the American heavy-metal bands Metallica and Megadeth, and was the subject of the 2015 documentary Landfill Harmonic.
Estefan writes that the new musical – which she says is in its early development – will be based on the documentary.
Ken Cerniglia is the dramaturg on the project, and Alex Lacamoire the music supervisor.
The 2015 Broadway jukebox musical On Your Feet!, based on the lives of Gloria and husband Emilio Estefan, has toured widely both domestically and internationally. A West End production opened in 2019.
Playwright Zacarías is the author of the 2005 play Mariela in the Desert, winner of the National Latino Playwriting Award, and more recently The Copper Children, which premiered in 2020 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Read Estefan’s announcement below.