Milton Estévez majored in classical guitar and music theory (music degree in 1980, with honors) at the National Conservatory of Music (Quito). He received a degree in architecture from the Central University of Ecuador (first in his class, 1978), and pursued studies in visual arts at the same institution.

He specialized in composition, between 1980 and 1985, at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, with Max Deutsch and Yoshihisa Taïra, on  a scholarship from the French government, and in 1984 received the superior diploma in advanced composition (first prize awarded in competition).

Estévez also pursued graduate studies in sociology, receiving a Ph.D. -Summa Cum Laudae from the Universitè de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, in 1985; and in musicology at the Universitè de Paris IV, Sorbonne (1982-84, Ph.D. candidate).
He attended analysis seminars at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Betsy Jolas.

He studied orchestral conducting with André Girard (former conductor of the French Radio/TV and the Paris Opera orchestras); electro-acoustics and computer music at the Centre Européen pour la Recherche Musicale of Metz (CERM) with Mesías Maiguashca and François Pinot.

Upon returning to Ecuador in 1985, he rejoined the faculty of the National Conservatory of Music, where he had previously taught classical guitar and theory from 1972 to 1980. He founded the Department of Research, Composition, and Musical Outreach (Departamento de Investigación, Creación y Difusión Musicales, DIC) in 1985, while teaching composition, musical analysis and orchestration.

He also developed a research project on music of the Shuar people from the Ecuadorean Amazon region, sponsored by UNESCO. In 1987 he founded  the Ecuadorean Festival of Contemporary Music and subsequently directed its annual iterations, as well as the group Musicaviva and the series Música de Nuestro Tiempo, carrying out work in support of musical creation, research, and dissemination.

Estévez moved to the United States in 1994, invited as visiting-composer-in-residence by the University of Louisville (1994-97), with the support of a grant from the Organization of American States; subsequently, he served five years as composer-in-residence at Spalding University, Louisville (1997-2002). Currently, he lives and works in Louisville.

Among his works for orchestra and electro-acoustics is Apuntes con Refrán, commissioned by IBM-Ecuador in 1987, which won an international competition to participate in the SoundCelebration II festival, hosted by the Louisville Orchestra (Kentucky) in 1992. He was invited the same year to the Sixth Latin American Music Festival of Caracas, and to the Seventh Festival in 1993.

His work Guitarra...Guitarra... was awarded the First Mention in the Rodrigo Riera international competition for guitar composition, Caracas, 1997.

Some other invitations to disseminate his music (symphonic, chamber, and mixed electro-acoustic works) include:
Fifteenth Latin American Music Festival of Caracas (2008); Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Ecuadorean Festival of Contemporary Music, Quito (2000, 2002, 2004, and 2008).

Web-hosted audio-data-base of Latin American Electro-acoustic Music, Fondation Langlois, Montréal (2004);

DRAM, web-hosted Data Base of Recorded American Music, New York (2003);
Composers Recordings Inc., New York (2000); Jornadas de Música Electroacústica, Montevideo (2000);
Radio de la Suisse Romande (1999);
Vor Eco Festival, Freiburg (1997);

New Ensamble of Amsterdam (1996); the Argentinean Music Council (1995); the Hungarian Radio (1994), Radio Cultura FM of Sao Paulo (1995); Composers Forum, Texas (1999); the Florida Electro-acoustic Music Festival, 1999; Subtropics Festival (Miami, 1994); the Festival Synthèse (Bourges, 1994); the International Rostrum of Composers (Paris, 1994).