Malta Arts Festival

From music to theatre to visual arts, the first week of the Malta Arts Festival has already
exhibited a colourful array of first-class cultural events that avid audiences have relished.

The weekend will also see the Malta Arts Festival debut a new initiative into its cultural
programme: the Emerging Artists Series. The Series aims to promote the work of
exceptionally talented, emerging young local artists, allowing them to showcase their
art alongside the heavyweights featured in the Festival. This year the Festival warmly
welcomes violinist Jean Noël Attard and pianist Joanne Camilleri, and Batera Duo – featuring
saxophonist Philip Attard and pianist Christine Zerafa – to its stage.

On Saturday the 7th July, Jean Noël Attard and Joanne Camilleri will be giving an exquisite
violin and piano recital, which will include pieces by Bach, Brahms and Lutoslawski. While on
Sunday the 8th July, the recently formed Batera Duo will combine their own unique brand of
energy, fun and passion to treat the audience to a programme that features selections by
Leclair, Monniot and Creston.

Both Emerging Artists Series performances will be held at St James Cavalier in Valletta at
11.00am. The concerts are free, however tickets must be reserved by contacting the St
James Cavalier booking office at www.sjcav.org or on +356 2122 3200.

There will be a one-day symposium entitled Performing Beckett on Monday 9th of July at the
Chamber of Commerce in Valletta. The symposium will start at 10.00 and conclude around
18.30.

Performing Beckett will focus on acting techniques and other performative elements
related to Beckett in performance. The symposium aims at discussing issues of musicality,
embodiment, and consciousness, which in contemporary theatre environments have
become synonymous with acting activity.

The symposium will be addressed by specialists in the field including Anna McMullan, a
major specialist on Beckett in performance and author of Performing Embodiment in Samuel
Beckett’s Drama, published by Routledge in 2010, and Nicholas Till, director of the Centre for
Research in Opera and Music Theatre at the University of Sussex. Professors McMullan and
Till will join director Phillip Zarrilli and his assistant Jeungsook Yoo from Llanarth Group and
East15 Acting School who will also address the symposium. A demonstration by actors of the
LLanarth Group will conclude the symposium.

For bookings and more information on the symposium please contact Ms Marilu Vella at
marie-louise.vella@maltaculture.com.

Monday the 9th will also see the magical Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak dance company
perform their enchanting dance-drama production Bombyx Mori at 21.00 at Argotti Gardens
in Floriana. Bombyx Mori is brought to the Festival stage in collaboration with the State of
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Founded in 1992 by two friends with a passion for dance and choreography, the Inbal Pinto
& Avshalom Pollak Dance Company has become respected in Israel and around the globe for
its unique and alluring performances. The Company currently consists of 12 dancers/actors
who work closely together in order to fulfil their collective mission of interweaving various
artistic disciplines into novel stage creations informed by the human condition.

Bombyx Mori continues in the mould of the company’s previous productions Oyster, Hydra,
and Rushes in creating a rich tapestry of sensations, which have allowed audiences to

rediscover that childlike awe dormant within again and again.

Tickets for Bombyx Mori can be purchased from www.ticketline.com.mt.