This evening’s event sees English composer, Stuart Murray-Turnbull, speaking about his works who will also give illustrations and examples on CD.

Stuart Murry-Turnbull is a young composer and musician. He studied Pianoforte Performance and Composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with 1^st Class Honours before going on to study composition at the Royal College of Music. He is currently working on his Ph.D in Composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Stuart’s compositions have been widely performed, most recently by the Choir of Coventry Cathedral (Magnificat and Nunc D, Easter, 2014) and by the Siglo de Oro choir in London (O Emmanuel, commissioned for the Victoria International Arts Festival 2014.)  Other recent performances include those by the St John’s Choir, Canada, and Singers Unlimited and the Chamber Choir of Europe, in Germany. He is currently Composer-in-Residence for the Chantage Choir (previously BBC Choir of the Year) and at St Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street, London.  In the pipeline is a new short Mass for young voices at St Martins in the Fields. Since graduating, Stuart has worked on a range of music projects. His choral arrangements can be heard on the EP by Snow Patrol, ‘A Hundred Million Suns’ (Track 1, 2009)), the Amadeus Choir’s bestselling Christmas choral release (2011), the Blossom Street Singers’ ‘Sea Anchor Songs’ and ‘Sacred Choral’ (2013). To contact Stuart, email him on [email protected]. If you are interested in hearing samples of Stuart’s compositions, below are links to six tracks from the new disc, recorded on the Guild label (these are in the early stages of production and still require work.)

The second part of the programme will feature four very young debutants, namely, Sylvano Mizzi (alto saxophone), Nicole Portelli (pianoforte), Josef Attard (trombone, accompanied by Stephanie Curmi) and Giovanni Bertolazzi (pianoforte.) For the first time, the organizers of our Festival are including a foreign debutant, Giovanni Bertolazzi, who is the winner of the Mozart Competition which was held in Vincenza this June. For this competition, the artistic director of our Festival was on the adjudicating panel and also had his works designated as set pieces. The other debutants all come from Gozo and are fast making a name for themselves in their respective discipline.

This is a unique concert for it aims at giving a platform to up-and-coming musicians to perform in front of an audience, a most valuable experience for those who wish to make of a performance a career!

The concert will be held in the Aula Mgr G. Farrugia and starts at 8pm.  See you there!