The organisers of the Victoria International Arts Festival are busy finalising the details of this year’s edition. As in previous editions of Malta’s longest-running Festival, this year the organisers have put together a sterling series of concerts that will regale audiences with the variety, styles and performers coming from seventeen different countries spanning three continents over a period of five weeks. As last year, the opening concert will feature the participation of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, which will also be in attendance for the final concert.

The hallmark of this Festival has always been high-powered chamber music of an extraordinary excellence. Over 140 composers will be performed. An added innovation this year is the inclusion of a mini-Baroque Festival within the larger framework. For five consecutive evenings, Baroque music from Malta, England, France, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and the Low Countries will be performed by musicians experts in the field, most of it on period instruments. The acquisition of a Baroque organ, very generously donated by Oxford scholar and organist Richard Vendome, and a harpsichord acquired through funding by Eco-Gozo, is making this specialised genre possible.

The programme will go online by the end of this week….  Watch this space!