Joseph Calleja speaking at last year’s event. Tickets available from: www.ooii.com.mt

Joseph Calleja is hoping that money raised from his charity Christmas concert next month will enable his foundation to help even more children as well as entice new audience members.

“Those who would normally not give opera concerts a chance will hopefully be drawn to the festive concert,” Mr Calleja said when contacted yesterday.

All proceeds from the annual charity concert, being held at the Divine Mercy Church, Naxxar, on December 20 will go to the BOV Joseph Calleja Foundation, which the tenor himself founded.

The foundation offers funding to artists who wish to train abroad but lack the finances to do so, as well as to underprivileged children.

“So far, we have sponsored 12 scholars and some of them have also joined me on stage during some my concerts,” Mr Calleja said.

At his annual Malta concert last August, the Maltese tenor was joined on stage by mezzo soprano Marvic Monreal and tenor Cliff Zammit Stevens who were sponsored by the foundation.

“Three of the scholars, Mr Zammit Stevens, Nicola Said and Kurt Sacco, will once again be performing at the Christmas concert and others may join,” he said.

We want to open a different window for these kids

The repertoire for next month’s concert will include popular Christmas carols, which he hopes will encourage a wider audience – and children – to attend.

“Another of the foundation’s aims is to use the arts to help children with social problems. We want to open a different window to these kids and I believe we can achieve that through the arts.”

Asked which of his two annual concerts he preferred, Mr Calleja said both were very special to him and he could not choose between the two as they were very different.

The summer concert was held at a much larger venue, attracting a big crowd, while the winter concert, held at the San Pawl tat-Tarġa church, was much more intimate.

“I usually joke that I think of the concerts as I do of my children. But it’s actually very close to the truth because they are both unique and equally special.”