Malta Cultural Institute Concert

The third concert of the Malta Cultural Institute season 2010/ 2011, will be held on the 13th December 2010 in the Grand Exhibition Hall of the Hotel Le Meridien, St. Julian’s, at 7:00pm. Special guests for the evening will be the Piano Duo Franco Foderà and Giovanna Mirrione, who are travelling from Trapani, Sicily, to perform for the MCI. They are not new-comers to Malta and have performed on the MCI platform some years ago.

Franco Foderà, pianist and composer, graduated with full honours from the Conservatorio V.Bellini, Palermo. Apart from passing his diploma examinations of the Royal Schools of Music in London, he attended master classes at the famous Accademia Chigiana, Siena. He also participated in the Second Competition of Analysis and Interpretation for which he was acclaimed for his performance qualities for a series of concerts he gave with the resident orchestra. Mro Foderà also performed Rachmaninov's Piano Concert no. 2 at the Teatro Massimo, Palermo, which he has recorded on CD. Since then, he has performed widely, both as soloist and with orchestra, giving important concerts all over Europe, the USA, and North Africa. As a composer, he has written both for pianoforte and orchestra and he has sat on adjudicating panels of prestigious music competitions. Mro Foderà is the co-founder and the Artistic Director of Associazione Amici della Musica di Alcamo. He is currently Dean of Pianoforte Studies at the Conservatorio A. Scontrino, Trapani.

Giovanna Mirrione graduated with full honours in her pianoforte studies from the Conservatorio di Musica A Scontrino, Trapani, under the distinguished tutorship of Mro Franco Foderà. In fact, she was listed as one of the most brilliant graduates in the whole of ltaly for that year. She also holds diplomas from the Royal Schools of Music, London. Since her graduation, Ms Mirrione has participated in numerous national pianoforte competitions, both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles. She has also attended master classes both in her native ltaly and abroad, always being chosen to perform in the final concerts. She has since widened her interests to include theory and solfeggio studies. A brilliant performer, Ms Mirrione has always been very well received by both critics and music lovers. Her repertoire includes the entire opus for four hands of Christopher Norton, which she has recorded for Diapason Record. She is heavily involved in teaching pianoforte performance and she has recently participated in a prestigious seminar on History and Musical Analysis in Helsinki.

As a duo, Franco Foderà and Giovanna Mirrione have performed extensively both in ltaly and in the rest of Europe. The performances have seen them playing as a duo with orchestra, giving world premieres of compositions by Foderà. Forthcoming engagements as a duo include performances in Russia and the USA next year.

As the 13th December soirée will be the MCI’s Christmastide performance, and also the last performance for the year 2010, the singers from the Marie Therese Vassallo Voice Studio will be providing the festive atmosphere with some Christmas music from their repertoire. The Voice Studio will be presenting its own Christmas concert on the 18th December 2010 at 7:15pm in the Parish Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Balluta, and so this will be just a sample of the music that they will be singing later on in the same week. A highlight of their programme will be a vocal interpretation of the famous Sinfonia Pastorale by G. Galea, to which Marie Therese Vassallo herself wrote the Lyrics and the arrangement for different voices. The MCI audience has just experienced one of the most successful evenings provided by the Voice Studio during the 8th November concert and may be sure that this will be another joyful event.

All are invited. Entrance to the Malta Cultural Institute Concerts is free of charge. Guests are kindly requested to be seated by 6:45pm. In case of larger groups of guests who would like to sit together, reservations are to be made on Tel: 21338923 or by email on maltacultinst@yahoo.com.