Gozo’s Gaulitanus Choir has launched the second edition of its festival Gaulitana : A Festival of Music. This edition of this post-Easter festival, being held between the 28th March and the 20th April 2008, is a build-up on last year’s explorative first edition and in fact is substantially extended. A series of twelve concerts in various venues in Gozo will feature local and international artists/ensembles in a pot-pourri of musical events ranging from the sacred to the folkloristic and from the pop to the classical, in which musical sounds are sometimes also juxtaposed with the flavours of the local cuisine. The festival is artistically directed by the choir’s founder-director, Colin Attard.The festival kicks off with two concerts with a pronounced German participation. The first, with sacred overtones, is an organ recital being held at St. Augustine Church, Victoria on Friday, March 28th by Wolfgang Hörlin. This German organist, a prizewinner in improvisation of renowned international organ competitions and with several CD recordings to his credit, comes from the rich Regensburg music tradition and currently teaches organ performance, improvisation and film music composition at the National Academy of Music and Theatre in Munich. His recital will include works varying from J.S. Bach to F. Mendelssohn, and from free improvisations to variations on Maltese sacred melodies.
Programme details – Please click to enlarge
On Sunday, March 30, Hörlin teams up with compatriot Franz Frank for a rather atypical concert for Malta which will be held at the Exhibition Hall, St. Francis Square, Victoria. Playing on two keyboards or in 4 hands, the two Germans musicians will present a programme consisting of improvisational music which makes humorous variations and new combinations of various well-known classical themes. Indeed the concert is appropriately entitled “Music, Humour and 20 Hands”. Hörlin and Frank have been performing together since they were 10 years old. The highly-eclectic Frank, who started his musical education at the Regensburger Domspatzen, the boy’s choir conducted by Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, had a prolific career which has seen him working in church and in theatre, as a composer and conductor, as an entertainer and teacher, and in various styles whether sacred, classical, operatic or pop. He has also worked with prestigious organizations such as the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Munich Opera and with many renowned international artists including Placido Domingo (in the CD recording of La Gioconda) and James Last. On Monday, March 31, a completely different event is scheduled. An evening of traditional Maltese music and food will be held at the Gozo Heritage, G?ajnsielem. This includes performances of local popular music by the Gaulitanus Choir itself and the Ta’ Saguna Group from Sannat , the latter a 10-piece ensemble playing on traditional local instruments. The mix of food, wine, music and the beautiful traditional setting of the venue should make up a really entertaining evening. For this event an entrance fee of €12 will be charged and booking in advance is necessary. The Gozo Ministry’s Exhibition Hall will again be the venue of the next two concerts in the weekend. On Saturday, April 5, several young 1st Prize winners of the important Austrian competition “Prima la Musica” will team up to give a concert of chamber music featuring some flute trios, violin duos and a string quartet. On the other hand on Sunday, April 6, the soloists who are active within the Gaulitanus Choir will join forces to provide a “Vocal Galore”. Seasoned soprano Rita Dimech, versatile English singer Terry Shaw, up-and-coming baritone Joseph Buttigieg, the choir’s own tenor Joseph Calleja, English soprano Margaret Plant, alto Stephanie Buttigieg and bass Darren Vella will perform a mixture of operatic arias, lighter original songs, as well as operetta duets, quartets and quintets. Indeed this concert gives a feel of what the choir’s soloists are up to when they are often given opportunities to perform in choir-organized concerts and also amply demonstrates the fact that the Gaulitanus Choir has always proved to be very fertile ground for soloists. The next concert, being held on Wednesday, April 9, will again be something quite unusual. The Groove Ensemble from Italy will perform an open-air percussion concert in the Gozo Ministry’s Courtyard. This group of 4 young percussionists, graduates of the Conservatorio G. Verdi of Turin, was formed in 2006 and has since performed successfully quite frequently in Italy and abroad. The festival also includes two piano recitals. Both will be held at the Aula Mgr. Farrugia, St. George’s Basilica, Victoria, one on Friday, April 11 and the other on Friday, April 18. The first features English pianist-composer Marcel Zidani. After graduating at the Birmingham Conservatoire in 1995, Zidani has performed extensively in the UK and Europe performing much of the virtuoso concerto repertoire and also recorded on CD. His Gozo recital includes works by Beethoven, Liszt and himself. The second recital features German pianist Susanne Anatchkova. Susanne has performed throughout Europe, and in the United States and performed with prestigious orchestras besides regularly appearing on German TV and radio. In Gozo she will perform works by Chopin, Messiaen, Ravel, Ligeti and Gershwin. Two concerts featuring some high-flying Maltese artists, well-known for their versatility and regular concert performances, are also scheduled. Husband-and-wife duo Silvio Zammit and Ramona Zammit Formosa will perform an unusual concert of unaccompanied flute duos at G?arb Basilica on Sunday, April 13. On the other hand on Tuesday, April 15 Sarah Spiteri and Alex Vella Gregory will team up for an interesting and atypical concert of 17th/18th century works for viola and keyboard at the Exhibition Hall, Victoria. The final foreign contribution to the festival will be on Saturday, April 19. American singer Britt Smallze will give a concert of highly popular semi-classical songs, including favourite hits by Kander, Gershwin and Lloyd Webber, amongst others, at Palazzo Margherita, Sannat. Smallze’s vast and versatile experience includes piano and vocal performance, improvisational comedy, musical theatre, besides working on the directorial side of numerous theatrical productions and also as musical director, as well as songwriting and playwriting. A winner of several awards, she has also produced albums and memorably performed during the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. During the Gozo performance, which will be given in a night-club / cabaret ambience, she will be accompanied by an instrumental ensemble made up of German Franz Frank on the piano and Gozitans Jean Noël Attard and Frank Camilleri on the violin and violoncello respectively. Since nibbles and drinks will be served during the concert, tickets at €10 must be pre-booked. The festival fittingly comes to an end with a concert given by the Gaulitanus Choir itself. Entitled “Sacred Finale,” this will be a concert of sacred music held at the Gozo Cathedral on Sunday, April 20th. The choir will give a varied and taxing choral programme, with some space also given to some of its soloists, and will be accompanied on the keyboard by its resident accompanist Stephen Attard and directed by its director Colin Attard. The choir hopes to emulate the success it had in its last concert-tour abroad in Corsica in 2007 where the Corse-Matin hailed their sacred concert as “bellissimo!……simply a live expression of beauty.” After the concert an optional reception will be held at the Cittadella Centre. Pre-booked tickets can be obtained at €15. All concerts start at 20.00hrs and are free of charge (except where indicated). A donation of €40 entitles the donor to a reserved seat for all the events except the concluding reception. This 2008 edition of Gaulitana : A Festival of Music, which is being held in collaboration with the Gozo Culture Section, is supported by various institutions who believe that the festival is now a tangible reality which adds a valid contribution to our already-rich cultural milieu as well as further enhances Gozo’s touristic appeal – internal and otherwise. These institutions are the MTA, the MIA, Arkadia, Abraham’s Supplies Co. Ltd, Gozo Cottage, Downtown Hotel, General Soft Drinks, HSBC, the Victoria and Gharb Local Councils, Gozo Heritage, Gozo Farmhouses Ltd, David’s Bakery and MME Co. Ltd. Further information and booking can be obtained on: 2156 0200, 9925 8592, 9994 9949, info@gaulitanus.com, colinatt@maltanet.net or by visiting the choir’s website, www.gaulitanus.com.
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