Gaulitanus concert for tsunami victims

The Gaulitanus Choir is organising an end-of-festive-season concert in aid of the tsunami disaster victims, at the Exhibition Hall, Victoria, today at 7 p.m. Entrance is free but a voluntary donation would be appreciated.

The concert will feature the choir's two well-known soloists, sopranos Rita Dimech and Georgina Gauci, in two numbers. Dimech will interpret two arias from H. Alexander Matthews' cantata The Story of Christmas -The Angel Gabriel was sent from God and O lovely voices of the sky, and Gauci will interpret Come unto Him and Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion, both of which are arias from Handel's oratorio, Messiah.

As a contrast, the choir's pianist, Stephen Attard, will perform an improvised arrangement of popular Christmas tunes entitled I'm dreaming of a jazzy Christmas, and young, up-and-coming violinist Jean Noël Attard will interpret A Christmas Fantasia, an adaptation of Christmas themes for violin and piano by his father, Colin Attard. This fantasia was arranged specifically for a recital which Jean Noël had to give during this Christmas season.

The Gaulitanus Choir concludes the concert with two numbers. The first will be The Snow, a three-part song by Elgar for female choir, two violins and piano. The final number will be Ninni... Ninni, an adaptation of the traditional Maltese carol for four soloists, four-part mixed choir and orchestra (in this case substituted by the piano) by Colin Attard, the choir's founder-director. Mr Attard is the concert's artistic director and conductor, as well as the accompanist together with his brother, Stephen.