Gozitan choir Schola Cantorum Jubilate has just returned from a Venice tour as part of their 15th anniversary celebrations.

During their five-day stay, the choir animated Mass in a number of important churches such as the Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of St Mark in the heart of Venice; the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, which houses Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin and the tomb of 17th-century composer Claudio Monteverdi, which is also found in Venice; and the Basilica of St Anthony in Padua.

They also held a concert at Santa Maria della Pietà church in Venice, also known as Vivaldi’s church.

The choristers, under the direction of Marouska Attard and accompanied by organist John Anthony Fsadni, presented pieces by masters of the sacred polyphony including Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Domenico Bartolucci. Other pieces were by Maltese composers Giuseppe Caruana and Paul Portelli and by the Venetians Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi.

They were warmly received wherever they played and generated interest about Malta. Various brochures about the Maltese islands were thus distributed.

Apart from all the musical commitments, the group had the opportunity to visit interesting and historical places among which the operatic theatre La Fenice.

This was the choir’s fifth experience abroad after Bastia, Corsica (2003), Rome and Assisi (2007), Vienna, Linz and Salzburg (2009) and the Brittany region in France (2012). The Venice tour was held under the patronage of the Embassy of Malta in Rome and with the collaboration of the Malta Tourism Authority.