Maltese and international artistes for Gozo festival

Gozo's Gaulitanus Choir will be holding a 15-day festival featuring local and international artistes between April 9 and 22.

The festival's first week will consist of an opera workshop. This master class for singers and accompanists will be conducted by international opera coach Joyce Fieldsend. The workshop sessions will be held alternately at the exhibition hall at the Sentinella, in Victoria, and at the Catholic Institute, in Floriana.

Participants can attend for a fee of Lm5 per day or Lm15 for the whole workshop. Some of the work done during the workshop will be demonstrated at a concluding concert on April 14 at the Sentinella, a historic hall at the Cittadella, Victoria.

A series of four concerts will then take place. On April 16 at Ta' Cenc Hotel, Sannat, English musician Terry Shaw will be performing American songs.

Soloist Rita Dimech will then feature in a vocal recital at the exhibition hall in Victoria on April 18 where she will performing a varied programme ranging from lieder to saloon arias and from light numbers to operatic arias.

The same hall will be the venue of another concert, this time a violin and piano recital featuring musician Jean Noël Attard who will be alternating between his two instruments on April 20.

The festival will come to an end on April 22 with a concert featuring the Gaulitanus Choir at the Palazzo Palina, Ta' Cenc Hotel, Sannat. The choir will be presenting a mixture of sacred and secular music.

All concerts start at 8 p.m., except for the final choral concert which starts at 7.30 p.m. For more information and bookings call 2156 0200, 9925 8592, 9987 7687, drop an e-mail to colinatt@maltanet.net or visit www.gaulitanus.org.