Sonja Sinclair Stevenson has been living in Gozo for the past years. She has blended in very well and there is hardly a concert or opera performance in Gozo which she misses. Wherever there is music, she’s there.
“I love music and my sense of civic responsibility drives me to try and contribute something through music, and combining the two is very rewarding,” says Sinclair Stevenson.
For the eighth consecutive spring, Sinclair Stevenson is organising a concert in aid of two very deserving charities – Friends of the Sick and the Elderly in Gozo and Happy Moments Kenya – featuring renowned Italian pianist Michelangelo Carbonara on Saturday.
“He is so talented yet so down to earth. He is a brilliant performer in the classical repertoire and is also composer and arranger, and could easily cross over to jazz,” Sinclair Stevenson adds.
Carbonara first came to these islands when he took part in an edition of the Victoria International Arts Festival some 10 years ago.
Not long after, Carbonara returned to give a memorable recital at the Manoel Theatre. Since then he has exclusively performed in Gozo, where he had an immediate following who loyally attend his performances year after year with first-timers who augment the ranks.
For a while he only performed as soloist but on occasion he also performed in duo recitals with his delightful and brilliantly talented South Korean cellist wife, Kyung Mi Lee. Her own contract commitments do not always permit her to spare the time to join her husband in Gozo.
Now, and not for the first time, Carbonara will be performing in a recital, the second half of which will be with leading Maltese cellist Simon Abdilla Joslin.
Abdilla Joslin is well-known to Maltese audiences. He has performed in leading venues in Malta and Gozo, has performed abroad, is well-known as a teacher and has had works composed for him. He performs on a fine French cello, an Honoré Dezaray dated c.1860.
“He has always worked well with Michelangelo and their recital promises to be as exciting as ever,” commentsSinclair Stevenson.
• The piano and cello recital is being held at Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz on Saturday at 7pm. Tickets at €30 may be obtained by sending an e-mail to sonjassl@go.net.mt or by calling 2156 2074. After the recital an optional three-course dinner at €40 per head will be served in the hotel’s trattoria. Those present during dinner will have the opportunity to meet the artists.
www.fsegozo.org
www.happymomentskenya.org