By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

MUSIC professor and Morwell-raised Steven Capaldo has ventured far and wide throughout his career in the industry, recently creating a new fanfare used in the closing ceremony of the 2025 Invictus Games held in Vancouver.

The piece has been praised for its celebratory themes, played while more than 550 athletes of former service entered the sold out Rogers Arena for the closing ceremony.

Mr Capaldo’s fanfare bookended the 12th annual Invictus Games co-founded by Prince Harry. This year’s Games featured pop sensations Katy Perry, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Nelly Furtado, Noah Kahan, and Quebec singer Roxane Bruneau.

A music professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, Mr Capaldo was in conversation with frequent university collaborators, the Royal Navy’s Naden Band who highlighted the Invictus Games.

“He was mentioning how there was a lack of new fanfares, particularly Canadian fanfares, that had been written… he was looking for something that was fresh, something new and he was struggling to find it,” Mr Capaldo said.

Devoting the weekend to write something he deemed would be interesting, Mr Capaldo returned to the navy band on the Monday, and upon handing it to them, thrusted the opportunity forward.

“He played it for the producers of the show and they fell in love with it and it became used as the music to which the team captains came in (to) for the closing ceremony,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a thrill, for sure and a huge honour.”

Mr Capaldo said that the producers of the event could tell that this was something truly unique, and favoured the athletes with the set tempo suitable for wheelchairs and assisted walking.

“What really struck them was not just the celebratory nature of the work but also (it being) really reflective and it had a respect for the participants, it came through the music,” he said.

“A lot of other fanfares are quite strident and serve other purposes… whether they be for other events like the Olympic Games, but I tried to put in this one a bit more of a sense of a respectful nature to the middle section of the music which is a bit more reflective and I think that came through really well and they thought that fitted with the occasion perfectly.

“I was there in the audience to cheer on the performance, that was pretty special to hear the piece played in such a big stadium and be appreciated by so many people but particularly the athletes and the organisers of the games themselves.”

Mr Capaldo’s work has been so well-received that it is in consideration to return for years to come as potentially an official theme of the Invictus Games.

“That would be a huge honour, we’re actually having discussions about that in the coming weeks,” he said.

“I’m really open to them to use the piece in future games and the fact that it might live on through the games is exceptionally thrilling for me.”

Attending Crinigan Road Primary School, Morwell and then St Paul’s, Mr Capaldo was always brought towards music which laid the foundations for his career going forward.

“I really took to music and I enjoyed it… it was a really rich musical upbringing I had through the school system,” he said.

“From there, I had opportunities to join the Australian military and was in the band there for a short time, unfortunately I got ill and had to leave.”

Mr Capaldo attended Melbourne University before being accepted into the Masters of Conduction Program at the Sydney Conservatorium and then moved to the US for his doctorate studies.

He has also been the Chair of the Australian jury panel for Eurovision and been on the jury for the Grammy Awards for a number of years.