On Thursday 22 April at 7.30 pm, the Manoel Theatre is presenting the last Spotlight concert of the season at the Sala Isouard. This series is aimed at highlighting a number of works by contemporary Maltese composers performed together with music by some foreign composers. The Maltese composer for this evening is Jesmond Grixti who is now based in Australia but is still a regular visitor to his homeland.
Three of Grixti’s works will be performed: the first of them is Naivasha, a work in two movements for piano. I made a wish is a work for viola and piano while the third work is String Quartet in three cycles, namely Faith, Hope and the Unknown. Bohuslav Martinù’s Piano Quintet N. 1 in four movements (1936) will actually open the concert. The other work in the programme is Australian composer Brenton Broadstock’s I touched your glistening tears, for piano, violin and cello. Broadstock was Grixti’s tutor at the University of Melbourne where the younger composer, a Janatha Stubbs Trust Scholar graduated M.Mus., and subsequently Ph.D in Composition in 2006. He thus became the first Maltese composer with such a doctorate.
Jesmond Grixti was born in Malta in 1969. He studied with Carmelo Pace and furthered his studies abroad. He studied at the London College of Music and the Thames Valley University of London. Under Franco Donatoni and as an Italian Government Scholar he graduated B. Mus., Honours first class from Siena’s Accademia Chigiana. He also studied at the Accademia Perosi of Biella and the Scuola Civica of Milan’s Conservatorio Verdi. In 2007 he was visiting scholar in the USA working with composer Don Freund at the Jacobs School of Music (University of Indiana) also addressing seminars there and at Louisville University. While in the USA, Prof. Bresnick of Yale University School of music invited Dr. Grixti to visit the School and attend his Master Classes. In 2009 he was selected as composer-in-residence at the Visby International Centre for Composers in Götland, Sweden and later in the same year he won Third Prize in the European Narrative, Music and Science Competition under the patronage of the European Parliament. His music has been performed in Malta, the UK, Italy, Japan, Australia, Kenya, Uganda and at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Major commissions include ones from the Maltese-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Australian High Commission in Malta (2003); the National Orchestra, Malta (2004); CHOGM: the Commonwealth Resounds! Festival and The Commonwealth Peoples’ Forum Malta 2005 and Uganda 2007; Nairobi Orchestra (2008) and the planned Mexico Independence Bicentennial later this year. His HOY is on the MPS label (UK) and rear Vision on the MCL label (Australia).
Dr. Mario Tabone Vassallo, a close friend of Grixti’s and who is very familiar with his music, will be introducing the concert. Five musicians will be taking part, of whom the four string players are also members of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. Pianist Juliet Lopez is Maltese, a performer with considerable experience locally and abroad. The string players are Hungarian-born violinists David Lang and Emese Toth, Bulgarian-born viola player Ina Georgieva and Italian cellist Angela Rahia Awalom. Apart from their duties with the MPO, these musicians are active in chamber ensemble playing both in Malta and abroad.
Tickets: bookings@teatruymanoel.com.mt tel: 2124 6389 fax:2124 7451
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