When, as a young student, lyric mezzo-soprano Deborah Harrison set off to Vienna on the scholarship that changed her life she knew that one day she would want to give something back to the foundation that believed in her.
After travelling the world and performing across continents, the American-born singer is returning the favour and using her talents to help raise funds for the Rotary Foundation and the Rotaract St Patrick's School Launching Pad project aimed at preparing young boys in institutional care for life's challenges.
On Friday, Ms Harrison, along with the Dominic Galea Trio, will be presenting an evening of music entitled A Tribute To America's Jazz Divas to showcase the internationally-loved musical genre of jazz and the American female artists who contributed to it.
"I've always wanted to organise a concert paying tribute to the jazz divas who inspired the rest of us. I was looking for a good excuse to do it. I wanted it to be a charity concert. So, as I was thinking which charity to go for, I went for one that has a personal meaning to me and first on my list was the Rotary Foundation," she said as she let out a radiant smile.
After studying vocal performance in America, Ms Harrison was awarded a one-year scholarship by the foundation to carry out her doctor of studies in Vienna where she studied German Lied and Oratorio.
She eventually moved to Berlin where she perused her passion for playing the piano - something that came effortlessly to her since she was a child. There, in Berlin, she took a leap into the entertainment world. As she struggled to get a contract in an opera house, she took on performing in a hotel where a colleague encouraged her to make a carrier out of playing the piano and singing - something she never really considered before.
"My colleague told me: 'You play and you sing, you're female and you're blonde so you'd do well in entertainment'. And he was right. So I made a demo tape and took a glamour shot... and, lo and behold, an Italian agent called and gave me my first contract in Abu Dhabi," she recalled.
Since then Ms Harrison has travelled the world. About three years ago she and her husband moved to Malta because they have a passion for sailing and the sea.
Friday's concert will focus on the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday.
The concert will include a visual and educational element as the audience will be given a chance to see the divas as Fiona Hornstein, the compere for the evening, shares anecdotes about each one before the musicians perform the songs that helped make them famous.
Ms Harrison explained that many of these divas, like the children who live at St Patrick's, had a troubled childhood. "But they looked beyond their past in a message that it doesn't matter where you came from. All that matters is where you're going," she said quoting one of the jazz divas.
The concert is sponsored by Exotique, Citadel Insurance, Kyte Consultants Limited, the US Embassy and Jason Lu Studios.
It will be held at Villa Arrigo in Naxxar on Friday at 7.30 p.m. Tickets cost €20 and are available at St James Cavalier (tel. 2122 3200).