Michelle Castelletti has been appointed artistic director of the Malta Arts Festival, Toni Sant has been announced as artistic director of St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity while Mario Philip Azzopardi will take on the role of Valletta 2018 Foundation artistic director as from January 1, 2015, the Arts Council Malta has announced.

Following a Masters in Conducting (second study, Composition) in the UK, Dr Castelletti was appointed Festival Manager of Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury. Under her management, the festival won the ‘Destination Canterbury Award’ for bringing the most national and international recognition to Canterbury. Soon after her PhD, Dr Castelletti moved to Manchester where she became artistic director at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Dr Castelletti forms part of What Next North West group and ‘Culture on the Corridor’ in Manchester. She is also a Trustee of the Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra.

Dr Toni Sant will be the first artistic director of St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity.  He is a Reader in Digital Curation at the University of Hull and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. He started his career as a professional broadcaster in Malta.

He read for a B.A. (Hons.) in Theatre Studies at the University of Malta, and continued his studies with an M.A. and Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University. In 1999, he started lecturing about performance and creative technologies with visiting lectureships at the University of Malta, Adelphi University, at New York University, and the School of Arts & New Media at the University of Hull in Scarborough, where he was Director of Research before taking up this post at St James Centre for Creativity.

Mario Philip Azzopardi, new artistic director for the Valletta 2018 foundation, is an artistic practitioner, director, administrator, producer, and original creator of products and events.

Mario Philip Azzopardi

By the time he was 17, Mr Azzopardi had written, produced and directed three of his theatre works at the National Children’s Drama Festival, winning awards for three consecutive years. At the age of 21, he founded the Royal University Students Association (RUSCA), where he directed the first Maltese full-length feature film called Gaġġa (The Cage).

When his original play Sulari fuq Strada Stretta was banned from the National Theatre due to censorship issues, he emigrated to Canada. The same play was successfully presented to sold-out houses at the Manoel Theatre 30 years after it was banned.  He has directed over 300 hours of prime time American television for top US production houses. More recently he set up Staġun Teatru Malti, a private company that commissions, develops and produces ground-breaking plays in Maltese.