Barocco Foundation will be running a series of lunchtime concerts at St Augustine’s Monastery in Old Bakery Street, Valletta, to fundraise for its restoration project.

Today, soprano Hannah Bonnici and pianist Julia Miller will be presenting a repertoire of Italian songs by 19th-century composers Bellini and Tosti.

The programme will include a number of Bellini’s popular bel canto songs: Il fervido desiderio, Vaga luna, che inargenti, Vanne, o rosa fortunate, Malinconia, Ninfa gentile, Ma rendi pur content and Per pietà, bell’idol mio.

Hannah will also sing Tosi’s following songs: Ideale, L’ultimo bacio, Malia, La Serenata and Aprile.

The concert will end with a rendition of bel canto songs by Rossini (La Pastorella delle alpi) and Donizetti’s Me voglio fa ’na casa.

Bonnici studied classical voice at the Johann Strauss School of Music in Malta from 2009 to 2016 under the direction of mezzo-soprano Clare Massa and Latvian opera singer Karmen Radovska. She studied classical piano and music theory for eight years, obtaining ABRSM qualifications during this time.

In 2013 Bonnici became a member of the Manoel Theatre Youth Opera and took part in several concerts with aspiring Maltese opera singers. She made her debut at the Manoel Theatre in 2015 as Belinda in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, directed by Johnathan Cocker and conducted by Alice Farnham.

She graduated from the Johann Strauss School of Music with a diploma in 2016 and continues vocal training with Karmen Radovska and soprano Alice Horn, while regularly performing in public recitals and concerts.

Miller hails from Lodz in Poland and began to study piano at the age of six, gaining her Masters’ degree in piano performance and chamber music after completing her studies at the Lodz Academy of Music.

She is a piano soloist, accompanist and teacher as well as a vocalist coach. She formed part of a classical trio and, as a soloist, performed in the luxury cruise line industry. She has taught at the Castleknock School of Music in Dublin and is a voice accompanist at the Johann Strauss School of Music and piano teacher at the School of Performing Arts in Malta.

She was a finalist in several piano competitions and performed in Dublin Feis CEoil in 2011. She also mentored a fully- staged musical in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. In 2013 she was one of four piano-collaborator interns at the Music Theatre Bavaria in Oberaudorf, Germany.

In 2014 she was a repetiteur at the Manoel Theatre Youth Opera and in 2015 in Mozart’s Così fan tutte under the direction of Dr Hand Nagel and soprano Andriana Yordanova. She regularly performs at concerts, masterclasses and competitions as a piano accompanist and can be heard in various venues in Malta and abroad.

Visitors have the opportunity to visit the interesting chambers of the monastery, which are adorned with beautiful and historical sacred ornaments after the concert for free. Proceeds from the event will go to the restoration project of the Augustinian Monastery.

The first concert will be held today at noon.  Tickets can be obtained from the venue itself half an hour before the concert begins. For more details, call 7968 0952 or e-mail baroccomalta@gmail.com.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.