Concerts to mark Mro Camilleri anniversary

A music festival to commemorate the life and music of Charles Camilleri is being held between Wednesday and Sunday next week, with concerts in the UK and Malta.

This month marks the first anniversary from the demise of Mro Camilleri.

Festival organiser and artistic director, Maria Blanco, said the concept of the festival sprouted from a personal promise made to Camilleri – that of ‘keeping his music alive’.

The festival will see the participation of some 40 musicians of different nationalities, most of whom had been in close professional collaboration with the composer during his lifetime.

Among the performers will be violinist Carmine Lauri, accordionist Milos Milivojevic, flautist Laura Falzon, mezzo-soprano Claire Massa, cellist Lesley Shrigley Jones, pianist Maria Blanco and clarinettists Anthony Houghton and Godfrey Mifsud.

Also participating are the Cassini String Quartet and the Jessop Wind Ensemble from Sheffield University, for whom Camilleri had composed music. The Filarmonika Orchestra, who had already been involved in last year’s world premiere of Camilleri’s New Idea Symphony in Belgium, will again be conducted by Brian Schembri.

The festival will start in Kent on Wednesday, with a concert at St James Piccadilly in London on Thursday and will culminate with two concerts at the Manoel Theatre on Friday and Saturday.

The highlights of the Saturday concert include a world premiere of the Sonata for Two Clarinets, Kanti Popolari performed by Claire Massa and the Anon String Quartet, the Clarinet Concertino performed by Anthony Houghton and the Flute Divertimento with soloist Laura Falzon.

The concert on Sunday, January 17 will feature Camilleri’s highly symbolic piano quintet Requiem for the Massacred performed by Blanco and the Wilhelm Quartet, his highly acclaimed Accordion Concerto with soloist Milos Milivojevic, and Four Legends, a colourfully folkloristic orchestral suite which will be conducted by Schembri and feature soloist Godfrey Mifsud, both of whom had previously performed and recorded this work with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

For more information e-mail camillerifest@gmail.com. or the Manoel Theatre.