Promoting Maltese culture

I refer to Kenneth Zammit Tabona's justified resignation from the National Orchestra committee when his request to see the contract before it was signed by Michael Laus was refused by National Orchestra chairman Mario Tabone-Vassallo.

I am another interested person who would have liked to see the contract before it was signed. My main interest would have been to check whether Dr Tabone-Vassallo had included a clause to ensure that Mro Laus promulgates works by Maltese composers in his choice of concert items with the National Orchestra.

I am not talking here about playing a Maltese work at the beginning of a programme, giving the impression of perfunctory lip service to Maltese musical attainments, but about building programmes around the works of Maltese composers.

There is a lot of public money being allocated to culture, including Mro Laus's remuneration, but little is being done to ensure that Maltese realisations, especially in classical music and drama and the encouragement of their ongoing development, get their due official share and attention.

From this point of view I have to say that the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts, now in its third year of life, and also funded through substantial public money, continues to be a disappointment overall and the few new initiatives it has taken are not of critical importance or even worth the nation's attention.

Paradoxically it is mainly the private sector, the APS Bank being the role model, that is investing in Maltese culture.