As European and African musicians come together for the first edition of this festival, Ramona Depares speaks to artistic director Renzo Spiteri and rounds up the highlights.

The first edition of the Malta World Music Festival (MWMF) takes place on May 19 and 20 at Fort St Elmo, Valletta.

Malta has always been at the crossroads of diverse peoples, where the presence of different traditions and influences developed into a colourful and rich culture. It is this beauty of cultural diversity that the MWMF will celebrate – the exchange of people’s customs emerging from different roots and the dialogue and vitality that is borne out of such experiences and expressed through the powerful medium of music.

“I would like this festival to be seen as a celebration of cultural diversity and a dynamic platform for the exchange and dialogue of artistic ideas, the result of which is expressed so vibrantly through the powerful medium of music,” explained festival artistic director Renzo Spiteri.

The idea for the festival, Spiteri says, was born soon after he finished his first edition as artistic director of the 2016 re-named Għanafest Malta World Music Festival, and stemmed from his belief that he needed to give this festival a fresh image, while addressing certain issues that made him feel uneasy.

I would like this festival to be seen as a celebration of cultural diversity and a dynamic platform for the exchange and dialogue of artistic ideas

“The most salient point was that I felt that this was like having two festivals in one, lacking a certain strong identity. I wanted għana to have its deserved platform but I also knew that I needed to engage higher-profile foreign acts. But, for reasons that I can’t detail here since it could take a whole article, I knew that these two forms could not co-exist.

Therefore, the Malta World Music Festival was born, a festival in its own right, celebrating music and culture from around the world,” he explains. The proposal for the festival was approved by Arts Council Malta in September and, soon after, Spiteri started planning this year’s edition but also setting his vision for following years. As with all new pro­jects, he says, the biggest challenges involve actually getting started at the very basics.

“Finding a new venue that works and that can cater for all the needs, technical and practical, of the acts, was the first challenge. Then we had to go about building a profile for the new festival and getting it out there for our audiences to know about it, following up on its marketing and shaping a strong identity from the very start. But, thank goodness, there isn’t just me working on the festival; there’s a whole team of people doing their bit to make this event a successful one.”

While world music may not be the most popular music category on the island, Spiteri believes there is a market for it.

“I remember being asked this question years and years ago when I started working with and introducing world music artists to local audiences in the numerous collaborations that I have presented over the past 25 years or so. The more I toured and played in different countries and festivals, the more I felt I wanted to share this particular musical energy with locals. The audiences have increased ever since, and I am happy to see that there are local bands dedicating themselves more and more to using this genre as their musical expression,” he concludes.

The festival, which promises two evenings of energetic and vibrant music by top-notch artists, is organised by Arts Council Malta.

Artists at a glance

Brodu

This Maltese alternative band, formed in 2011, will open this year’s edition of the festival. The band was set up to record an album with songs composed by Mark Abela and the late Darren Gatt, which they released in 2014.

Singing in Maltese and playing rock music with influences from various musical genres, the band’s first album was called Ħabulla­bullojb and featured a number of Maltese artists, including Justin Galea, Nadine Axisa, Toni Spiteri ‘tal-ġebel’, Każinska, Herman Spiteri and Kim Farrugia, among others.

The band, which was recently joined by Chris Mallia from Beesqueeze and the now-defunct Cable 35, is a few months away from releasing its second album, to be called Tfejt.

Brodu perform on May 19 at 8pm.

Tsuumi Sound System

Tsuumi Sound System is one of Finland’s internationally most notable modern folk music bands. Rooted in Nordic folk traditions, with their multi-award compositions, this eight-piece instrumental ensemble has no problem with accommodating various influences together in a show of high intensity and delicate feeling

The band has produced three albums where co-producer and Swedish guitar legend Roger Tallroth has brought a truly masterful touch to the sound. Hotas (2007) provides a wealth of music riche, positioning the band at the top of European folk bands. With Growing Up (2009), the band demonstrates that they lost none of their charms, drive and appeal. Floating Letters (2013) follows the musical continuum of the band with inspired fiddle playing, magical accordion sounds, driving percussions and enough earth and grit - especially from the sax – to make the music sounds great and varied. With a taste of Celtic, Balkan, classical and jazz influences, Nordic folk has never sounded so cosmopolite. On stage, the band brings the audience into a musical journey full of emotions and enjoyment, creating an overwhelming live experience. Tsuumi Sound System perform on May 19 at 9pm.

Tiwiza

A live band above all, Tiwiza offers popular music deeply rooted in African soil, while naturally fusing tradition and modernity.

Delivered in three languages, the message is one of an ancestry that proclaims its thirst for liberty and its right to exist.

Through the lens of the struggle for survival, Tiwiza extends its critical of injustice around the world.

Tiwiza perform on May 19 at 10.15pm.

Khouri Project

Three brothers, Elia, Basil and Osama, formed the Khoury Trio (now the Khoury Project) in 2002. The trio’s music is contemporary, combining identifiable Arabic forms with globalised rhythms. Although faithful to the great tradition of classical Arabic music, the Khourys have fused their music with many other genres, including opera, flamenco, Celtic, Indian, and jazz.

Elia Khoury is a renowned oud virtuoso performer and an exciting innovator in the world music scene. He completed his master’s degree at the Istanbul Technical University in 2002, where he focused on Arabic and Turkish oud techniques and interpretations. Basil Khoury is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso violinist, mastering a broad range of violin styles from classical to Arabic and other Middle-Eastern styles, as well as gypsy and jazz. Osama Khoury is an outstandingly talented qanoun virtuoso performer and a revolutionary artist. He invented a new style of qanoun playing by employing techniques from other instruments, such as the flamenco guitar. He has taken the limits of his instrument and its capabilities to another level, while using the harmony of jazz music, especially in his improvisation work.

Khouri Project performs on May 20 at 8pm.

Sona Jobarteh

Sona Jobarteh is the first female kora virtuoso to come from a West African griot family. Breaking away from tradition, she is a mo­dern-day pioneer in an ancient, male-dominated hereditary tradition that has been exclusively handed down from father to son for the past seven centuries. She has mo­dernised the presentation of kora music, bringing a rhythmic edge to her compositions which are very up to date and fit her remarkable singing.

The kora is a 21-stringed African harp, and is one of the most important instruments belonging to the Manding peoples of West Africa. It can be found in Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. The kora, along with a handful of other instruments, belongs exclusively to the griot families of West Africa. Only those who are born into one of these families have the exclusive right to take up these instruments professionally.

Sona, who was born into one of the five principal West African griot families, has become the first female in her long family line to break from tradition by taking up this instrument professionally.

Sona Jobarteh performs on May 20 at 9pm.

BandAdriatica’s Floating Art Project

This project represents a continuous search for the common traits of the music of the Mediterranean Sea, under the intriguing hypothesis that all traditions were originally one. The fragmentation into the many different cultures we find today along the shores of this sea happened gradually.

The music – born from the encounter and exchange among people and their traditional repertoires transported to other seemingly remote countries – constantly evokes a sense of remembrance and proxi­mity. It is from these emotions that the idea of rewriting the repertoires resulting from the mixing of different traditions with a modern sensitivity was born, allowing a feeling of belonging to a larger Mediterranean context.

To achieve this result, BandAdriatica meets musicians from other Mediterranean countries in order to get to know each other’s respective traditions by playing together, and then attempting to write new music.

BandAdriatica perform on May 20 at 10.15pm.

Tickets are available from the Manoel Theatre box office or online from www.teatrumanoel.com.mt.

www.maltaworldmusicfestival.org