Victoria International Arts Festival begins

The 20th anniversary celebrations of the Victoria International Arts Festival start this evening with a choral and orchestral concert at St George’s Basilica. The concert, entitled The Music of Joseph Vella, features the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra with soloists Claire Debono,  Paul Patinka, and Joseph Mercieca, the Laudate Pueri Choir and the University of Delaware Chorale under the direction of Joseph Vella, artistic director of VIAF. The Victoria International Arts Festival has been dubbed ‘the Gozo miracle’ and ‘a quiet revolution’. This year’s important edition consists of a range of 40 diverse concerts to include orchestras, choirs, chamber ensembles of various formations, solo recitals, big bands, master classes, an art exhibition, and more. To celebrate this important milestone, the organisers are putting on three consecutive inaugural concerts. The highlight of this year’s edition is surely the second inaugural concert tomorrow, June 7, by the world-famous Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina who are coming purposely over to Gozo to perform in VIAF. They will be under the direction of Mgr Massimo Palombella, and motets on the programme include the famous Miserere by...