Wieħed Biss wins competition for new compositions

Albert Pace has won APS Bank's first Composition Competition netting €2,500 for his work Wieħed Biss, which will eventually be premiered and recorded under the auspices of the bank.

A special prize was awarded to Joseph Sammut for his Symphony of Canticles.

The competition was launched with the express purpose of encouraging Maltese composers to write a high-quality oratorio.

Musicologist Joe Vella Bondin spoke about his involvement with the competition and how he managed to obtain the collaboration of the three members of the adjudicating panel. These were Bulgarian musicologist and producer Ekaterina Dotcheva, Italian musicologist and professor of history of music Paolo Emilio Carapezza and British conductor and composer Colin Touchin. There were only three entries and the scores were examined separately by the judges. Ms Dotcheva said she marvelled at the fact that a bank took such great interest in sponsoring and furthering not only the preservation of Malta's classical/sacred musical heritage but also thought of the present and contemporary genre. This was something she hoped banks in Bulgaria would emulate.

Prof. Carapezza noted how the competition reflected a continuation of interest in the creation and nurturing of new Maltese works, adding that he would do all he could to have the winning entry performed in Palermo.

Mr Touchin remarked upon his almost 20-year connection with Malta when he directed a choir from Warwick at the first Malta International Choirs Competition in 1989 and was glad to know that serious music was very much alive and well on the island.