About seven years ago, Brian Bugeja sat in his workshop in Marsaxlokk sketching a pipe organ he intended to build from scratch.
He had set himself a tall order: researching, buying all the materials, and making the tools to build the pipe organ, a task that normally requires a team of highly skilled technicians.
From that slow beginning, the pipe organ, which is a work of art as well as a technical achievement, has moved up in the world and is now the showpiece in the music hall of St James Cavalier in Valletta.
Mr Bugeja will be playing the pipe organ on Friday, showing its wide versatility and how he painstakingly built it, and the scientific principles behind its melodious and relaxing sounds.
He will be at St James between 9.30 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. and between 1 and 7 p.m.
He said yesterday: "I look forward to meeting people and playing the pipe organ on Friday at St James. There is no better way to see in the new year than through music, forgetting for a while the threats of war that are crowning news bulletins."
Mario Azzopardi, a member of the board of directors at the cavalier, said Mr Bugeja had managed an extraordinary feat, combining ingenious technical skills and fine musical ability.
"The fact that the organ combines such creativity endorses the government's policy of making art more inclusive and bringing to the people, particularly at grass roots level, the joy of listening to music.
"Brian has created a monument to creativity, which should double up as a talisman that will open the doors of St James for everyone."
Mr Azzopardi said the organ may become a permanent feature at the cavalier.
He said that apart from the technical enhancement that the pipe organ adds to St James, it has added a further dimension to the arts centre through the workshops for children with mental disability organised by Mr Bugeja and animator Jeanette Savage.
A former Malta Shipbuilding fitter who left the 'yard in an early retirement scheme, Mr Bugeja attended a two-month course in organ building at a factory in Mainz, Germany. Oberlinger employs about 70 master craftsmen who produce fewer than 10 organs a year which they export worldwide. Made by hand, each organ costs tens of thousands of liri.
John Demanuele, director of youth and sport at the ministry of education, said that he got to know about Mr Bugeja's labour of love when he read about it in The Times.
He said he was impressed by Mr Bugeja's technical and musical aptitude.
"I instinctively felt that Mr Bugeja should be pushed in his outstanding endeavour and when I was appointed director of culture, youth and sport, I realised that the time was ripe to give this great artist a boost by seeing how the pipe organ could best be appreciated by the public."
Mr Demanuele was instrumental in obtaining sponsors to cover part of the expenses that Mr Bugeja undertook to build the pipe organ.
In a pipe organ, the sound is produced by the cylindrical body of the pipe known as the speaking length, and is made of sheet metal. The metal is an alloy of lead and tin which is soldered to another part of the pipe known as the cone.
The metal is shaped by hand on metal mandrels. The wooden pipes are quadrangular. Each note is differentiated by the length, width and height of the pipes.
The bellows, made of wood and sheepskin, are driven by an electric motor.
Dion Buhagiar, who used to tutor Mr Bugeja in piano playing, said: "Brain has shown unlimited enthusiasm both as a musician and as a builder of this organ".